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Dedicated to the Feoplo of oai Oonntrj, who will snrely elect him 

The Next President of the United States. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY BARCLAY & CO., 

21 NORTH SEVENTH STREET. 



AGEJfTS WAJfTED EVERYWHERE, 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 

B-A.I&CXjJ^-3r & CO., 

Ib the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C 






General Hancock's Life. 



PREFACE. 



THE nomination of General Hancock may have been the result of 
accident, but it was as discreetly done as if it had been the conse- 
quence of sage counsel and of deliberate consideration. There is no 
deference to statesmanship in the selection. General Hancock is a 
soldier — gallant and most successful. He was one of the heroes of the 
war of the rebellion, and served the cause of the Union with unshrink- 
ing bravery and success. He has been as prudent since the conclusion 
of the contest, in his conduct, as he was brilliant previously in his career 
as a soldier. Hancock is a man to hurrah for — just as Jackson, Har- 
rison, Taylor, Pierce and Grant were hurrahed for, and shouted into the 
Presidential chair. There have only been two instances of a soldier 
nominated by one of the great parties of the country failing to reach the 
White House : General Winfield Scott was vanquished by General 
Franklin Pierce; General McClellan was nominated as a candidate 
against Lincoln in the second term of the latter, because he was a soldier, 
and for the alleged reason that he had been badly treated by the Admin- 
istration. But he failed miserably, and thereby was enforced a principle 
of policy necessary to be understood in American politics for all time to 
come; and that is, that a soldier disgraced, even under circumstances 
which might be greatly unjust, is not the proper man to be a candidate 
while war is raging against the Administration of the country. It was 
a fearfully bad blunder which nominated McClellan in 1864, and the 
result which followed has not yet been overcome. 

General Hancock's record as a soldier is unstained. It is more bril- 
liant than that of General Garfield — for the reason that while Garfield 
was a volunteer, without previous military training (but was brave and 
successful), Hancock was a soldier by education, and most thorough in 
his profession. Years ago the election of General Jackson was declared 
to be tlie beginning of a bad system by the introduction of military 
heroes, rather than statesmen, into the Presidential chair. The old 
Whig party professed to be opposed on principle to military heroes. 
Yet it sacrificed those professions in the nominations of Harrison, 
Taylor, and Scott; and, when the Republican party succeeded, the 
nomination of Grant seemed thoroughly natural and to be expected. 

(19) 



22 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

Hancock was promoted to captain and assistant qnarter?naster in the 
fall of 1855, and served on the staff of General narney during the 
Florida war, and subsequently in Kansas and Nebraska during the mem- 
orable political troubles of twenty years ago. Afterwards he went with 
Harnov to Utah, and rode overland across the continent to the Pacific 
coast. He was stationed in California for several years and until the 
outbreak of the rebellion. When the news of the firing on Fort iSuniter 
reached his distant post he sent a request to the Governor of his State for 
assignment to a command of volunteers. There were many discordant 
elements in California at that time, and a manifest sympathy with seces- 
sion, which threatened to overmaster the sentiment of loyalty and isolate 
the Golden State from the Union. While awaiting a reply from the 
Governor of Pennsylvania he took an active part in encouraging and 
organizing the loyal sentiment. His first speech in public was a patriotic 
appeal at a meeting called in Los Angeles at that period. His influence 
in Southern California was of signal service in finally saving the State 
to the Union. Impatient at delay in hearing from the Governor, he 
applied to General Scott to be ordered East for active duty. His request 
was granted, and on reporting at Washington he was assigned as chief 
quartermaster on the staff of General Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort 
Sumter, who was organizing an army at Louisville, Ky., but before 
entering on those duties he was appointed by Mr. Lincoln a brigadier- 
general of volunteers and assigned to a command in the Army of the 
Potomac. The four regiments composing his brigade were the Fifth 
Wisconsin, the Sixth Maine, the Forty-ninth Pennsylvania, and the 
Forty-third New York. In the spring of 1862, embarking with his 
brigade at Alexandria, he accompanied the Army of the Potomac to the 
Peninsula and was actively engaged in the siege of Yorktown during the 
month of April. On the 5th of May, after the evacuation of the works, 
he followed the flying enemy, and on the same evening, with a detached 
command of his own brigade, an additional regiment of infantry and 
two batteries of artillery, by a skilful exterior manoeuvre he gained an 
important position on the enemy's flank and rear, and led the brilliant 
forward movement which resulted in the withdrawal of the enemy from 
the whole line of works at Williamsburg. For his gallantry and splen- 
did success on this occasion he was specially complimented in the des- 
, patches of the Commanding-General of the Army. The phrase, " Han- 
cock was superb," ran throughout the country from Maine to Califitrnia. 
His subsequent conspicuous services at Golding's Farm, Garnett's Hill, 
White Oak Swamp, and other engagements during the Seven Days' fight 
which closed with the victory at Malvern Hill, led the General-in-Chief 
to urge his promotion to major-general of volunteers. Besides, he wns 
recommended for promotion, by brevet, as major, lieutenant-colonel, an<l 
<:(>l()nel in the regular array for gallant and meritorious condnd in that 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 23 

campaign. In the fall of 1862, after the return of the Army of the 
Potomac from the Peninsula, he took part in the movement on Centre- 
ville, Va. In the Maryland campaign of the same year he commanded 
his brigade at Crampton's Pass, South Mountain, on the 14th of Sep- 
tember. Three days afterwards, on the battle-field of Antietam, he was 
placed in command of General Richardson's division when that gallant 
officer fell mortally wounded in that memorable action. He was after- 
wards, as he had been before, engaged in conducting several important 
reconnoitring expeditions requiring tact, discretion, and ability to handle 
troops. He was then commissioned a major-general of volunteers. At 
the battle of Fredericksburg, in December, he led his division in the 
assault on Marye's Heights, where he lost half his command in killed 
and wounded, and where he and all his aides were wounded. At the 
battle of Chancellorsville, in May, 1863, in command of his division, he 
covered the roads leading towards Fredericksburg, where amid surround- 
ing disaster, although constantly attacked, his troops maintained their 
position to the last, and formed the rearguard of the army in moving off 
the field. The General's horse was shot under him in that battle. Early 
in June he relieved General Couch in command of the Second Corps, and 
later in the same month was assigned by Mr. Lincoln to be its permanent 

<5ommander. 

Hancock guarded the rear of our army on the march to Gettysburg. 

Reynolds was in advance in command of three army corps, and after lie 

had fallen on the first day, General Meade sent Hancock forward from 

Taneytown (whence his grandfather had started one hundred years before 

to escort the Hessians of Burgoyne to Valley Forge), to take command 

of all our forces on the battle-field. Upon his arrival he checked the 

enemy's advance, and occupied the ground upon which the Army of the 

Potomac gained its greatest victory. This accomplished, he sent^ word 

back to General Meade that our position should be held, as, in his 

opinion, Gettysburg was the point where the great impending battle 

should be fought. In accordance with these suggestions General Meade 

hurried forward all his forces. On the second day Hancock commanded 

the left centre of our army, and reconstructed the line of battle pierced 

by the enemy in many places, so that at night our position stood intact 

as in the morning. On the third day it was his high fortune to repulse 

the assault of General Longstreet. The enemy preceded the assault by 

an artillery attack of two hours and a half, during which 150 guns 

poured a continuous stream of shot and shell upon the left centre of our 

line. Under cover of this fire Lee was concentrating and forming the 

flower of the Confederate army for the final assault, on the result of which 

depended the future hopes of the Confederacy. Amid this storm of shot 

and shell General Hancock rode up and down his lines, inspiring con- 

adence in his troops and preparing them to resist the infnntry nttf>f-\- 



24 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

which he knew to be impending. At length, after this cannonade, Long- 
street hurled the whole of his command, numbering 18,000 men, upon 
Hancock's line connecting Round Top with Cemetery Hill. The assault 
was filially repulsed, but only after a contest of the most stubborn and 
sanguinary character. Five thousand prisoners, thirty-seven stand of 
colors, and many thousand stand of arms were among the immediate; 
tr(;[)hies of this victory. The issue of the day was the salvation of the 
country. At the moment of his triumph Hancock fell desperately 
wounded, ^yhile lying on the ground on his line of battle, the enemy 
retreating in confusion from the field, he sent an aide with the following 
message to General Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac i 
" Tell General Meade," he said, " the troops under my command have 
repulsed the enemy's assault, and we have gained a great victory. The 
enemy is now flying in all directions in my front." The officer who 
conveyed this message to General Meade added also that General Han- 
cock was dangerously wounded. "Say to General Hancock," said Gen- 
eral Meade, " that I am sorry he is wounded, and that I thank him for 
the country and for myself for the service he has rendered to-day." By 
a joint resolution of Congress General Hancock received the unanimous 
thanks of that body for his " gallant, meritorious, and conspicuous share 
in that great and decisive victory " at Gettysburg. 

After the battle he was borne to the field hospital and thence to his 
father's home at Norristowu, Pa., where he lay for many weeks and suf- 
fered great agony from his wound. The bullet was finally extracted, but 
he was unfit for duty until the following December. During this forced 
retirement from active service he was received with great enthusiasm 
wherever he appeared. In December, although his wound was still 
unhealed, he reported at Washington for active duty in the field. At 
this time, after the battle of Mine Run, he was prominently talked of in 
Cabinet councils for the command of the Army of the Potomac, and was 
retained in Washington with that view, but with characteristic nobility 
and magnanimity lie disclaimed all desire for the position and urged the 
retention of General Meade. Resuming command of the Second Corps, 
which was now in winter-quarters, he was soon requested by the authori- 
ties at Washington to proceed to the North to recruit the decimated ranks 
of that celebrated corps preparatory to the ensuing spring operations. 
Accordingly he established his headquartere at Harrisburg, and visited 
other States in enlisting volunteers. His high reputation and great popu- 
larity made him eminently successful in this service. While discharging 
this duty the City Council of Philadelphia tendered him the honor of a 
reception in Inde})endence Hall, and he also received the ho&pitalities of 
New York, Albany, Boston, and other cities. 

In March, 1864, he returned to the field and assumed command of his 
corps, whose numbers had been augmented to 30,000 by (^oitsolidation 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 26 

with the gallant old Third Corps. He was a prominent figure in the 
battle of the Wilderness, where, at the crisis in the fight, he commanded, 
in addition to his own corps, parts of the Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth, 
amounting in all to fully 60,000 men. When the enemy had planted 
his colors on a portion of our breastworks, General Hancock, accompanied 
by his staff with swords unsheathed, rushed forward with his troops and 
was largely instrumental in securing the success which beat back the foe 
and regained the line. On the 10th of May he commanded the Second 
and Fifth Corps at the battle of the Po. On the 12th the Second Corps, 
after a midnight march, pounced upon the enemy's fortified position near 
Spottsylvania Court-House, in a dense fog, at the hour of daylight in the 
morning. Hancock commanded his corps in this renowned assault, by 
which he captured the enemy's works, nearly 5,000 prisoners, twenty 
i>ieoes of artillery, more than thirty colors, several thousand stand of 
,-mall arms, and other paraphernalia of war. This Avas undoubtedly the 
most brilliant and bloody operation of the Army of the Potomac during 
the Ciimpaign of 1864, and had it taken place separately from the other 
actions of that season would have been considered one of the most deci- 
sive battles of the war. He again assaulted the enemy's position in front 
of Spottsylvania, May 18th, and on the 19th successfully repulsed an 
attack made upon one of his divisions by Ewell's corps. He was an 
active participant in the engagements at North Anna, Tolopotomy, and 
Cold Harbor, and in the earlier and later operations of the army near 
Petersburg that year. During all this time he was suffering severely 
from the wound received at Gettysburg, which had never fully closed, 
compelling him to often leave his horse and ride in an ambulance until 
contact with the enemy again summoned him to the saddle. For ten 
days his wound forced him to relinquish the immediate command of his 
corps, although still continuing with his troops, but at the expiration of 
that time he was again at its head, actively participating in the Peters- 
burg operations. Meanwhile he was promoted to the rank of brigadier- 
general in the regular army. On the 27th of July, 1864, he crossed to 
Deep Bottom, on the north bank of the James river, and in conjunction 
with Sheridan's cavalry he attacked and carried a portion of the enemy's 
works, capturing, among other trophies, four pieces of artillery. In 
August he made a second expedition to Deep Bottom in command of his 
own corps, the Tenth Corps, and Gregg's division of cavalry. In these 
operations, which continued a week, he had a series of sharp engagements, 
during which he broke the enemy's lines and carried off more of his 
artillery. Having been again recalled to the lines in front of Petersburg, 
he skilfully withdrew his forces and, after a weary march of more than 
twenty miles that night, arrived in time to witness the explosion of 
Burnside's mine. On the 25th of August, two divisions of his corps were 
sent to destroy the railroad at Reams's Station, thirteen miles distant 



26 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

from the established lines of our army at Petersburg. The remainder 
of his troops Jield their assigned position in the general line. Anticipat- 
ing trouble at that separate operation, Hancock was not easy until ho had 
proceeded to join that portion of his command in person. The issue 
showed that his anxiety was justified. By withdrawing troops from the 
intrenchments at Petersburg and sending them round to the railroad the 
enemy concentrated in his front, soon outnumbering our forces three to 
one. Here Hancock fought another heroic fight at close quarters, his 
horse being shot from under him in the assault. Two months later he 
fought the battle of the Boydton Road, where he captured a thousand 
prisoners and several stand of colors. 

At the request of Secretary Stanton, and by order of the President, he 
was then ordered to Washington to recruit and command an army corps 
of veterans, to consist of 50,000 men. While the recruiting was in 
progress he was once more summoned to the front, and assigned to the 
<;ommand of the Middle Military Division, with headquarters at Win- 
chester, Va. This command included the Department of West Virginia, 
the Department of Pennsylvania and the Army of the Shenandoah. A 
movable force of 35,000 men of all arms was at once organized for the 
purpose of moving upon Lynchburg in case Lee should retreat to that 
point, or to embark on transports to join General Sherman on the 
Southern sea-coast in case Leo should fall back on Danville, but the sur- 
render of Lee, and the capture of Richmond, removed the necessity for 
any such contemplated movements. Having been already brevetted 
major-general in the regular arms for gallant and meritorious services at 
Spottsylvania, he was. afterward promoted to the full raidc of major- 
general for tilie brilliant part he bore in the rebellion. General Meade 
paid the following tribute to his services: " No commanding general ever 
had a better lieutenant than Hancock ; he was always faithful and 
reliable." 

After the close of the war, in 1865, General Hancock was assigned to 
the command of the Middle Military Department, with headquarters at 
Baltimore, and in August, 18G6, to the command of the Department of 
Missouri. In the latter capacity his services were of great importance, 
under the direction of the Government, in harmonizing the conflicting 
elements in Missouri, arising out of the occupation of the State by troops 
under the State authorities and the presence of the men of the Southern 
Confederacy who had just returned to their homes. While still in the 
Southwest he was also engaged in a campaign against hostile Indians in 
Kansas and Colorado. 

At this time it was intended to place him in command of one of the 
military districts of the South created under the Reconstruction acta of 
Congress. By remaining in the field, and taking no part in political 
affairs, Hancock, although conservative in his views, hnrl ',von tlio gocr^.- 



LIFE OF GENERAL HAAX'OCK. ■ 27 

will alike of Republicans and Democrats. The desire to retain it was 
more inviting to him than the opportunity to wield unlimited power 
which the suggested assignment presented. Hence he sought to be 
excused from such duty in the South, and at first his inclinations were 
respected. Subsequently, however, in opposition to his wishes, in the 
latter part of 1867, he was assigned to the command of the Fifth Military 
District, comprising the States of Louisiana and Texas, with headquarters 
at New Orleans. Congress had invested such commanders with despotic 
powers, and it was easy for them to fall into the temptation of exercising 
their prerogative and to issue military mandates in the decision of all 
important questions, civil or military, involving the rights and interests 
of citizens, instead of following the more circuitous but more clearly con- 
stitutional course of civil methods. In this crisis he "was called upon to 
decide for himself whether in his administration he would use the civil 
authorities, or, entirely discarding them, resort instead to military com- 
missions for the trial of all offences. It is not too much to say that many 
civ?lians placed in similar positions, with unlimited authority and com- 
mand of money, might have been carried away by the temptations to use 
despotic power which were presented to him ; but he, though educated a 
soldier, thrust aside all arbitrary methods, and insisted that the peaceful 
operation of the civil authority should be maintained where its officers 
were ready and willing to perform their legitimate duties. Instead of a 
spirit of Csesarism he showed profound respect for the majesty of the civil 
law, a wise consideration for the rights and interests of the citizen, and a 
sincere affection for our republican institutions. His predecessor in this 
command had construed the Reconstruction acts to give the commander of 
that district absolute power in the States of Louisiana and Texas. Han- 
cock held to the supremacy of the civil over the military authority, and 
in accordance with these principles his first official act upon assuming the 
command was to issue his celebrated Order No. 40, which is as follows: 

Headquarters, Fifth Military District. \ 

New Orleans, La., November 29th, 1867. / 

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 40. 

1. In accordance with General Order, No. 81, Headquarters of the 
Army, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, D. C, August 27th, 1867, 
Major-General W. S. Hancock hereby assumes command of the Fifth 
Military District and of the department composed of the States of Louisi- 
ana and Texas. 

2. The General commanding is gratified to learn that peace and quiet 
reign in this department. It will be his purpose to preserve this condi- 
tion of things. As a means to this great end, he regards the maintenanre 
of the civil authorities in the faithful execution of the laws as the most 



28 LIFE OF CiENEUAL HANCOCK. 

efficient under existing circumstances. In war it is indispensable to 
repel force by force and overthrow and destroy opposition to lawful 
authority. But when insurrectionary force has been overthrown and 
peace established, and the civil authorities are ready and willing to 
perform their duties, the military power should cease to lead and the 
civil administration resume its natural and rightful dominion. Solemnly 
impressed with these views, the General announces that the great princi- 
ples of American liberty are still the lawful inheritance of this people, 
and ever should be. The right of trial by jury, the habeas corpus, the 
liberty of the press, the freedom of speech, the natural rights of persons 
and the rights of property must be preserved. Free institutions, while 
they are essential to the prosperity and happiness of the people, always 
furnish the strongest inducements to peace and order. Crimes and 
offences committed in this district must be referred to the consideration 
and judgment of the regular civil tribunals, and those tribunals will be 
supported in their lawful jurisdiction. While the General thus indicates 
his purpose to respect the liberties of the people, he wishes all to under- 
stand that armed insurrection or forcible resistance to the law will be 
instantly suppressed by arms. By command of 

Major-General W. S. Hancock. 

Throughout the whole of General Hancock's command of the Fifth 
Military District his course was uniformly consistent with the sentiments 
set forth in the order above quoted. Although in supreme command, he 
sustained the jurisdiction of the civil courts and the purity and indepen- 
dence of elections by the people. He refused to organize military com- 
missions to supplant the judiciary of the State, and avoided all military 
interference with the administration of civil affairs. Under a rule so 
beneficent there was no necessity for the exercise of arbitrary power, for 
< bedience to the laws was the homage the people voluntarily rendered to 
an administration so purely and wisely devoted to the public good. The 
following are extracts from some of his orders covering the most 
important cases. 

ON THE STAY OF CIVIL PROCESS. 

The Hon. E. Heath, Mayor of New Orleans: 

Sir: In answer to your communication of the 30tli ult., requesting 
his intervention in staying ])roceedings in suits against the city on its 
notes, the Major-General commanding directs me to respectfully submit 
his views to you on that subject, as follows: Such a proceeding on his 
part would, in fact, be a stay-law in flivor of the city of New Orleans, 
which, under the Constitution, could not be enacted by the Legislature 
of the State ; and in his judgment such a power ought to be exercised by 
him, if at all, only in case of the most urgent necessity. It does not, 
therefore^ seem to tke Major-General commanding that there is an urgent 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 29 

necessity which would justify his interference in the manner required. 
Besides, the expediency of such a measure is more than questionable; 
for, instead of reinstating the confidence of the public in city notes, it 
would probably destroy it altogether. 

REFUSING A MILITARY COMMISSION FOR OFFENDERS AGAINST 

STATE LAWS. 

To His Excellency E. M. Pease, Governor of Texas : 

Sir : Brevet Major-General J. J. Reynolds, commanding District of 
Texas, in a communication dated Austin, Texas, November 19th, 1867, 
requests that a military commission may be ordered " for the trial of one 
G. W. Wall." 

It is true that the third section of "An act to provide for the more 
efficient government of the rebel States" makes it the duty of the com- 
manders of military districts " to punish, or cause to be punished, all 
disturbers of the public peace and criminals ; " but the same power from 
its very nature should be exercised for the trial of offenders against the 
laws of the State only in the extraordinary event that the local civil 
tribunals are unwilling or unable to enforce the laws against crimes. iVt 
this time the country is in a state of profound peace. The State 
Government of Texas, organized in subordination to the authority of the 
Government of the United States, is in the full exercise of all its proper 
powers. Under such circumstances, there is no good ground for the 
exercise of the extraordinary power vested in the commander to organize 
a military commission for the trial of the persons named. 

REVOKING A SUMMARY REMOVAL MADE BY HIS PREDECESSOR. 

2. Paragraph 3 of Special Orders No. 188 from these headquarters, 
dated November 16th, 1867, issued by Brevet Major-General Mo\yer, 
removing P. R. O'Rourke, Clerk of Second District Court, Parish of 
Orleans, for malfeasance in office and appointing R. L. Shelly in. his 
stead, is hereby revoked, and P. R. O'Rourke is reinstated in said office. 
If any charges are set up against the said O'Rourke, the judicial depart- 
ment of the Government is sufficient to take whatever action may be 
necessary in the premises. By command of 

December 4th, 1867. Major-General Hancock. 

REVOKING ORDER OF HIS PREDECESSOR ON JURORS. 

The Commanding General has been officially informed that the 
administration of justice, and especially of criminal justice, in the courts 
is clogged, if not entirely frustrated, by the enforcement of paragraph 
No. 2 of the military order numbered Special Orders 125, current series. 



:^0 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

from those headquarters, issued on the 24th of August, A. d. 1867, rela- 
tive to the qualifications of persons to be placed on the jury lists of the 
State of Louisiana. The Commanding General, in the discharge of the 
trust reposed in him, will maintain the just power of the judiciary, and 
is unwilling to permit the civil authorities and laws to be embarrassed by 
military interference. It is ordered that said paragraph, which relates 
to the qualifications of persons to be placed on the jury lists of the State 

of Louisiana, be and the same is hereby revoked. 

* ****** * 

By command of Major-General Hancock. 

December 5th, 1867. 

TO PREVENT MILITARY INTERFERENCE AT THE POLLS. 

IX. Military interference with elections, " unless it shall be necessary 
to keep the peace at the polls," is prohibited by law, and no soldiers will 
be allowed to appear at any polling place, unless as citizens of the State 
they are registered as voters, and then only for the purpose of voting; 
but the commanders of posts will be prepared to act promptly if the civil 
authorities fail to preserve peace. 

December 18th, 1867. 

DISCLAIMING JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS IN CIVIL CASES. 

Applications have been made at these headquarters implying the 
existence of an arbitrary authority in the Commanding General touching 
purely civil controversies. 

One petitioner solicits this action, another that, and each refers to some 
special consideration of grace or favor which he supposes to exist and 
which should influence this department. 

The number of such applications and the waste of time they involve 
make it necessary to declare that the administration of civil justice apper- 
tains to the regular courts. The rights of litigants do not depend on the 
views of the general; they are to be adjudged and settled according to 
the laws. By command of 

January 1st, 1868. Major-General Hancock. 

ON REMOVALS WITHOUT JUDICIAL INQUIRY. 
His Excellency B. F. Flanders, Governor of Louisiana : 

Governor: I am directed by the Major-General commanding to 
acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 11th instant, with 
papers and documents accompanying the same, charging the police jury. 
Parish of Orleans, right bank, with appropriating to their own use and 
benefit the public funds of said parish, and with being personally inter- 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 31 

ested in contracts let by them, and recommending the removal from 
office of the President and members of said police jury, and, in reply, to 
state that these charges present a proper ease for judicial investigation 
and determination; and, as it is evident to him, that the courts of justice 
can afford adequate relief for the wrongs complained of, if proved to 
exist, the Major-General commanding has concluded that it is not 
advisable to resort to the measures suggested in Your Excellency's com- 
munication. I am, Governor, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
W. G. Mitchell, Brevet Lieut.-Col. U. S. A., 
Secretary for Civil Affairs. 
December 30th, 1867. 

THE LETTER TO GOVERNOR PEASE, OF TEXAS. 

On the great and the overshadowing question of the restoration of the 
Southern States, General Hancock was equally specific and clear in his 
letter of March 9th, 1868, to Governor Pease, of Texas. Governor 
Pease having addressed a letter to General Hancock commenting on Order 
No. 40, the General replied in his own defence in an able state paper, of 
which the following are extracts : 

"As respects the issue between us, any question as to what ought to 
have been done has no pertinence. You admit the act of Congress 
authorizes me to try an offender by military commission or allow the 
local civil tribunals to try, as I shall deem best ; and you cannot deny the 
act expressly recognizes such local civil tribunals as legal authorities for 
the purpose specified. When you contend there are no legal local tri- 
bunals for any purpose in Texas, you must either deny the plain reading 
of the act of Congress, or the power of Congress to pass the act. 

" You next remark that you dissent from my declaration ' that the coun- 
try (Texas) is in a state of profound peace,' and proceed to state the grounds 
of your dissent. They appear to me not a little extraordinary. I quote 
your words : ' It is true there no longer exists here (Texas) any organ- 
ized resistance to the authority of the United States. But a large 
majority of the white population, who participated in the late rebellion, 
are embittered against the Government, and yield to it an unwilling 
obedience.' Nevertheless, you eoncede they do yield it obedience. You 
proceed : 

" ' None of this class have any affection for the Government, and very 
few any respect for it. They regard the legislation of Congress on the 
subject of reconstruction as unconstitutional and hostile to their interests, 
and consider the Government now existing here under authority of the 
United States as an usurpation of their rights. They look on the eman- 
cipation of their late slaves, and the disfranchisement of a portion of their 
own class as an act of insult and oppression.' 



32 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

"And this is all you have to present for proof that war and not peace 
prevails in Texas; and hence it becomes my duty — so you suppose — to 
set aside the local civil tribunals and enforce the penal code against citi- 
zens by means of military commissions. My dear sir, I am not a lawyer, 
jior has it been my business, as it may have been yours, to study the 
philosophy of statecraft and politics. But I may lay claim, after an 
experience of more than half a lifetime, to some poor knowledge of men 
and some appreciation of what is necessary to social order and happiness. 
And for the future of our common country, I could devoutly wish that no 
great number of our people have yet fallen in with the views you appear 
to entertain. Woe be to us whenever it shall come to pass that the 
])Ower of the magistrate, civil or military, is permitted to deal with the 
mere opinions or feelings of the people. It would be difficult to show 
that the opponents of the Government in the days of the elder Adams, or 
Jefferson, or Jackson, exhibited for it either 'affection' or 'respect.' Yon 
are conversant with the history of our past parties and political struggles 
touching legislation on alienage, sedition, the embargo, national banks, 
our wai-s with England and Mexico, and cannot be ignorant of the fact 
that for one party to assert that a law or system of legislation is uncon- 
stitutional, oppressive and usurpative is not a new thing in the United 
States. That the people of Texas consider acts of Congress uncoustitu- 
•tional, oppressive or insulting to them is of no consequence to the matter in 
hand. The President of the United States has announced his opinion 
that these acts of Congress are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court, as 
you are aware, not long ago decided unanimously that a certain military 
commission was unconstitutional. Our people everywhere, in every 
State, without reference to the side they .took during the rebellion, differ 
as to the constitutionality of these acts of Congress. How the matter 
really is, neither you nor I may dogtuatieally affirm. I am confident you 
will not commit your serious judgment to the proposition that any amount 
of discussion, or any sort of opinions, however unwise in your judgment, 
or any assertion or feeling, however resentful or bitter, not resulting in a 
breach of law, can furnish justification for your denial that profound 
peace exists in Texas. You might as well deny that profound peace 
exists in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, Ohio and 
Kentucky, where a majority of the people differ with a minority on these 
questions ; or that profound peace exists in the House of Representatives, 
or the Senate at Washington, or in the Supreme Court, where all these 
questions have been repeatedly discussed and parties respectfully and 
patiently heard. 

" You next complain that in parts of the State (Texas) it is difficult to 
enforce the criminal laws, that sheriffs fail to arrest, that grand jurors will 
not always indict, that in some cases the military, acting in aid of the 
civil authorities, have not been able to execute the process of the courts; 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 33 

that petit jurors have acquitted persons adjudged guilty by you, and that 
other persons charged with oifences have broke jail and fled from prosecu- 
tion. I know not how these things are, but admitting your representa- 
tions literally true, if for such reasons I should set aside the local civil 
tribunals and order a military commission, there is no place in the United 
States where it might not be done with equal propriety. It is rather 
more than hinted in your letter that there is no local State government in 
Texas and no local laws outside of the acts of Congress which I oug%t to 
respect, and that I should undertake to protect the rights of persons and 
property in my own way and in an arbitrary manner. If such be your 
meaning, I am compelled to differ with you. After the abolition of 
slavery (an event which I hope no one now regrets), the laws of Louisiana 
and Texas existing prior to the rebellion, and not in conflict with the acts 
of Congress, comprised a vast system of jurisprudence, both civil and 
criminal. I am satisfied, from representations of persons competent to 
judge, they are as perfect a system of laws as may be found elsewhere, 
and better suited than any other to the condition of this people, for 
by them they have long been governed. Why should it be supposed 
Congress has abolished these laws? "Why should any one wish to abolish 
them ? Let us for a moment suppose the whole civil code annulled, 
and that I am left, as commander of the Fifth Military District, the sole 
fountain of law and justice. This is the position in which you would 
place me. 

" I am now to protect all rights and redress all wrongs. How is it 
possible for me to do it ? Innumerable questions arise, of which I am 
not only ignorant but to the solution of which a military court is entirely 
unfitted. One would establish a will, another a deed ; or the question is 
one of succession, or partnership, or descent or trust ; a suit of ejectment 
or claim to chattels ; or the application may relate to robbery, theft, arson 
or murder. How am I to take the first step in any such matter ? If I 
turn to the acts of Congress I find nothing on the subject. I dare not 
open the authors on the local code, for it has ceased to exist. And you 
tell me that in this perplexing condition I am to furnish, by dint of my 
own hasty and crude judgment, the legislation demanded by the vast and 
manifold interests of the people ! I repeat, sir, that you and not Con- 
gress are responsible for the monstrous suggestion that there are no local 
laws or institutions here to be respected by me, outside the acts of Con- 
gress. I say unhesitatingly, if it were possible that Congress should pass 
an act abolishing the local codes for Louisiana and Texas — which I do 
not believe — and it should fall to my lot to supply their places with some- 
thing of my own, I do not see how I could do better than follow the laws 
in force here prior to the rebellion, excepting whatever therein shall 
relate to slavery. You are pleased to state that ' since the publication of 
(my) General Order No. 40 there has been a perceptible increase of crime 
3 



34 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

and manifestation of hostile feeling towards the Government and its sup- 
porters/ and add that it is ' an unpleasant duty to give such a recital of 
the condition of the country.' 

" You will permit me to say that I deem it impossible the first of these 
statements can be true, and that I do very greatly doubt the correctness 
of the second. * * * But what was Order No. 40, and how could it have 
the effect you attribute to it? It sets forth that 'the great principles of 
American liberty are still the inheritance of this people, and ever should 
be; that the right of trial by jury, the habeas corpus, the liberty of the 
press, the freedom of speech, and the natural rights of person and property 
must be preserved.' Will you question the truth of these declarations ? 
Which one of these great principles of liberty are you ready to deny and 
repudiate? Whoever does so avows himself the enemy of human liberty 
and the advocate of despotism." 

General Hancock left New Orleans at his own request. The General- 
in-Chief of the Array having been given unconstitutional control over 
matters in the South, superior to the prerogatives of the President, who 
chose to submit to that domination, Hancock applied to be relieved, desir- 
ing to avoid any further connection with political complications. He was 
then, March, 18G8, assigned to the command of the Military Division of 
the Atlantic, with headquarters at New York. In the National Demo- 
cratic Convention of that year, although himself not an aspirant for the 
place, he received nearly a controlling vote for the nomination for Presi- 
dent of the United States. He remained in New York until he was 
assigned to the Department of Dakota, with headquarters at St. Paul, 
Minn., in November, 1869. After the death of General Meade he was 
recalled from the Northwest and placed in command of the Military 
Division of the Atlantic, with headquarters at New York, in which posi- 
tion he now remains. At the Pennsylvania State Convention of 1869 he 
was tendered by his numerous friends the Democratic nomination for 
Governor of his native State — an honor which he then and has since 
declined. In the National Democratic Convention of 1872 he was again 
prominently mentioned for President of the United States, until it was 
decided to nominate a Liberal-Republican. It has fallen to the lot of 
few men to render such valuable services to his country as General Han- 
cock has done. Upon all occasions and under all the different circum- 
stances in which he has been tried he has been distinguished by remark- 
able judgment, discretion and force of character. 

[In the convention of 1876, on the first informal ballot. General Han- 
cock received seventy-five votes and was third on the list of nominees. 
During the i>ast four years he has remained in command of the Depart- 
ment of the East, and during the past two months he has been acting as 
President of the Court of Inquiry which was called to consider the 
conduct of Major-General Warren at the battle of Five Forks.] 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 35 

HANCOCK'S SAYINGS. 

Extracts from his Orders that show lohat hind of a man he is. 

"The true and proper use of the military power, besides defending the 
national honor against foreign nations, is to uphold the laws and civil 
government, and to secure to every person residing among us the enjoy- 
ment of life, liberty, and property." 



"The right of trial by jury, the habeas corpus, the liberty of the press, 
the freedom of speech, the natural rights of persons and the rights of 
property must be preserved." 

" Tell General Meade that the troops under my command have re- 
pulsed the assault of the enemy, who are now flying in all directions in 
my front." 

"Power may destroy the forms but not the principles of justice. 
These will live in spite of even the sword." 



" The great principles of American liberty still are the lawful inherit- 
ance of this people and ever shall be." 



"Armed insurrections or forcible resistance to the law will be instantly 
repressed by arms." 

" Nothing can intimidate me from doing what I believe to be honest 
and right." 

''Arbitrary power has no existence here." 



THE PLATFORM. 

The Doctrine of the Democrats for the Coming Campaign. 

Following is the platform adopted by the National Democratic Con- 
vention at Cincinnati : 

The Democrats of the United States in convention assembled declare : 

First. We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and 
traditions of the Democratic party, as illustrated by the teaching and 
example of a long line of Democratic statesmen and patriots and em- 
bodied in the platform of the last National Convention of the party. 

Second. Opposition to centralization and to that dangerous spirit of 
encroachment which tends to consolidate the powers of all the depart- 
ments in one, and thus to create — whatever be the form of government — 
a real despotism. No sumptuary laws ; separation of Church and State 
for the good of each ; common schools fostered and protected. 



36 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

TnreD. Home rule ; honest money, consisting of gold and silver and 
paper convertible into coin on demand; the strict maintenance of the 
public faith, State and national, and a tariif for revenue only. 

Fourth. The subordination of the military to the civil power and a 
general and thorough reform of the civil service. 

Fifth. The right to a free ballot is the right preservative of all rights, 
and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States. 

Sixth. The existing administration is the representative of conspiracy 
only, and its claim of right to surround the ballot-boxes with troops and 
deputy marshals to intimidate and obstruct the electors, and the unpre- 
cedented use of the veto to maintain its corrupt and despotic power, 
insults the people and imperils their institutions. 

Seventh. The great fraud of 1876-77 — by which upon a false count 
of the electoral votes of two States, the candidate defeated at the polls 
was declared to be President, and for the first time in American history 
the will of the people was set aside under a threat of military violence — 
struck a deadly blow at our system of representative government. The 
Democratic party, to preserve the country from the horrors of a civil war, 
submitted for the time, in firm and patriotic faith that the people would 
punish this crime in 1880. This issue precedes and dwarfs every other. 
It imposes a more sacred duty upon the people of the Union than ever 
addressed the conscience of a nation of freemen. 

Eighth. "We execrate the course of this administration in making 
places in the civil service a reward for political crime, and demand a 
reform by statute which shall make it forever impossible for the defeated 
candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains 
upon the j^eople. 

Ninth. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not again to be a candi- 
date for the exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of his 
countrymen, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of the 
Republican party, is received by the Democrats of the United States 
with sensibility, and they declare their confidence in his wisdom, patriot- 
ism and integrity, unshaken by the assaults of a common enemy, and 
they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has 
chosen for himself by the sympathy and respect of his fellow-citizens, 
who regard him as one who, by elevating the standards of public morality 
and adorning and purifying the public service, merits the lasting grati- 
tude of his country and his party. 

Tenth. Free ships and a living chance for American commerce on 
the seas and on the land. No discrimination in favor of transportation 
lines, corporations or monopolies. 

Eleventh. The amendment of the Burlingame treaty. No more 
Chinese immigration, except for travel, education and foreign commerce, 
and therein carefully guarded. 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 37 

Twelfth. Public money and public credit for public purposes solely, 
aud public land for actual settlers. 

Thirteenth. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the 
laboring man, aud pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormor- 
ants and the commune. 

Fourteenth. We congratulate the country upon the honesty and 
thrift of a Democratic Congress, which has reduced the public expendi- 
ture $40,000,000 a year ; upon the continuation of prosperity at home 
and the national honor abroad, and, above all, upon the promise of such 
a change in the administration of the government as shall insure us 
genuine aud lasting reform in every department of the public service. 

PLATFORM AND CANDIDATES. 

If it were not that all precedents made it necessary to adopt a platform, 
the Democratic Convention would doubtless have adjourned without this 
formality. As it was, the platform received little attention from the 
delegates, who were sufficiently satisfied that their candidate's record gave 
them a better platform than they could make for themselves, aud it will 
probably receive as little from the public. There have been years when 
a strong Democratic ticket was defeated by a weak platform ; but in the 
present state of popular seutiment the candidate is more important than a 
ream of resolutions. 

As platforms go, this one is not without its merits. It has the very 
great advantage over that adopted by the Republicans at Chicago in 
being short and intelligible. Quite one-half of the entire space is occu- 
pied by the " fraud issue," which is presented with sufficient distinctness 
to satisfy even Mr. Tilden, who gets a complimentary resolution all to 
himself — a compliment that certainly was due from a party that owes its 
present hopeful attitude so largely to Mr. Tilden's organization four years 
ago. There are some passages in these fraud resolutions more remark- 
able for vehemence than for perspicacity. Thus the demand for " a re- 
form by statute which shall make it forever impossible for the defeated 
candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains 
upon the people" is certainly expressed with sufficient force, if not with 
elegance, but it might have been more satisfactory if a draft of the pro- 
posed statute had been incorporated in the resolution. However, if 
there is any one subject that justifies strong language from a Democratic 
Convention, it is this. 

Coming down to more generaf issues, the principles of the party are 
affirmed with little or none of the customary equivocation. The platform 
is distinctly for free trade — " a tariff for revenue only " — and "free ships and 
a living chance for American commerce." As the Chicago Convention, 
in the course of a rambling essay upon things in general, suggested that 
"the duties levied for the purpose of revenue should so discriminate as 



38 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

to favor American labor," there would seem to be something like an issue 
between the parties at this point. But apart from the vagueness of this 
proposition, which a Democrat scarcely would dispute, the fact that the 
Republicans put a free-trader on their protection platform, while the can- 
didate on the free trade platform comes from a high tariff State, will 
make it difficult to get up a very lively controversy on this issue. So, 
too, with the question of "free ships," which is one of the things that the 
Chicago platform neglects to mention. Ciucinnati reaffirms the traditional 
Democratic doctrine, but it is doubtful if either party, as now consti- 
tuted, could be held strictly to its record upon any of the questions of 
this class. The currency is another subject upon which the Chicago 
platform expressed no opinion ; but here the Cincinnati resolutions are 
directly to the point — " honest money, consisting of gold and silver and 
paper convertible into coin on demand." This is much sounder doctrine 
than was ventured upon at St. Louis, even under Tilden's lead, and it stamps 
out the last trace of the soft- money heresy. For the rest, this platform is 
mainly noteworthy for enunciating clearly and distinctly a variety of un- 
disputed principles which the Republican platform conceals in a mass of 
verbiage. Even the Chinese plank is more intelligible, and if the dec- 
laration that " the Democratic party is the friend of labor and the working- 
man" do not profoundly impress the reader, there is at least some amuse- 
ment to be derived from the pleasingly alliterative antithesis of " cor- 
morants and the commune." 

Altogether, this is a very fair piece of platform-making, with some bad 
planks as well as good ones, and a fair allowance of clap-trap, but with 
much less than the usual amount of sheer nonsense. If anybody at- 
tached importance to documents of this class, it would be possible to as- 
certain from this one what the Democracy believes, which is much more 
than could be ascertained as to the Republicans from the platform adopted 
at Chicago. But, after all, the differences between the two parties at this 
time can hardly be expressed in a series of resolutions. They are much 
better expressed by the candidates and their surroundings, and it is over 
the candidates, and not over the platforms, that the battle will be fought. 



WINFIELD S. HANCOCK, 705! 

Nominated for Pr-esident With a Rush on the Second Ballot. — The Party's 
Choice. — A Scene of Great Enthusiasm. — The Spectators in the Hall 
Running Wild With Excitement. — 'Speaker Randall's Speech. — The 
Philadelphia Delegations United. — The Two Clubs Joining in the Great 
Hurrah for the General. — A Love-Feast Among the New Yorkers. — 
Tammany and Anti-Tammany Agree to Shake Hands Over the Result. 
Pennsylvania bore off the first honor of the National Democratic Con- 
vention of 1880. The great wave of enthusiasm which swept so com- 



LIFE OF GP:NEKAL HANCOCK. 39 

pletely over that assemblage left the wreck of many a prominent candi- 
date in its path, but Wiufield Scott Hancock was not among these. Him 
it brings within reach of the highest place in the nation. Really, there 
were only two regular ballots, one for President and the other for Vice- 
President. That taken on the previous night was only the throwing out 
of a skirmish line. It served to show exactly where the strength and 
weakness of the contesting forces lay, and who was best fitted to lead them 
against the common enemy. 

THE POPULAR FAVORITE. 

How it came about that even before the issue was fairly joined it was 
apparent that Hancock was the popular favorite for the Presidential 
nomination has been told. Weary of discussion of the comparative 
availability of candidates whose merits were either too positive or too 
negative, there suddenly arose a common impulse to lay hold upon the 
one of them all whose claims no efforts were necessary to establish, and 
in whose efforts there was the least mechanical pressure upon the conven- 
tion. It was a boom from within, not from without. If there was ever 
spontaneity in political movements it was found here. Dan Dougherty's 
speech was a great one, and so was Daniel's, and so was Hubbard's, but 
they told the convention nothing that they did not know already. The 
delegates and the galleries caught the point before Dougherty struck the 
name of his candidate. His oratory voiced the popular demand and 
kindled the popular imagination, and then the work was done. When 
the convention adjourned on the previous day the furore for Haucocic 
spread like wild-fire to the streets and over the country. So the night 
wore on. Tidings of reinforcements came from every State delegation, 
and telegrams of encouragement poured into Cincinnati. Hancock was in 
the air. Hasty attempts were made to combine the opposing elements 
of opposition. All night this business was going on. Tilden made a 
last effort to rally his forces, and played last of all the trump cards which 
he should have played at first, in directing his friends to present the 
name of his most loyal and most popular adherent, Samuel J. Randall. 
It was a great thing thus to put one of Pennsylvania's favorite sons 
against another, the statesman against the soldier-statesman ; but it was 
too late, too late. The stars in their course fought for the hero of Gettys- 
burg and New Orleans, Dougherty's " Hancock, the superb ! " 

THE OPENING SCENES. 

When the great Exposition hall was filled with delegates, it began to 
be realized even by the least astute that Hancock would be nominated, 
but nobody believed that it would be effected in such a glorious fashion. 
The scenes of the day had a brilliant setting. A vast audience drew 
quick breaths in anticipation. The immense platform in the rear of the 



40 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

president's stand was crowded with representative Democrats other than 
members of the convention, and hundreds of handsomely dressed ladies, 
occupying privileged seats, lent the charm of beauty and an air of gayety 
to the spectacle. New York was the first to gain the floor. The most 
distinguished-looking member of her delegation arose and was greeted 
with cheers aud some hisses, but the hisses were almost the last that were 
heard in that hall. Mr. Peckham formally presented Mr. Tilden's letter 
of declination to the convention. He thanked the imperial guard who- 
had voted for the old man on the previous day, but, accepting his decli- 
nation as made in good faith and finality. New York would not ask the 
suffrages of the convention for him. He was authorized, however, to say 
that New York had agreed upon another candidate, and that candidate 
was that eminent Democratic Statesman, Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsyl- 
v^auia. As the name fell from his lips there was a hearty cheer, and the 
Samuel J. Randall Association, of Philadelphia, following the example 
of Hay, Ermentrout and others of the Pennsylvania delegation, arose to 
their feet, waved their hats and fans, and kept the cheer going for sev- 
eral minutes, New York, Nebraska and other States joining in it with 

enthusiasm. 

THE BATTLE BEGUN. 

The line of battle was now formed for the opposition to Hancock, and 
it began right away. Alabama, the first State called in the balloting,, 
strikes the key-note in increasing her Hancock vote from 7 to 11. Arkan- 
sas sticks to Field. California, which gave no votes to Hancock on the 
first day, now gives him 5. Connecticut divides between Bayard and her 
Eno-lish. Florida and Delaware are faithful to the Diamond statesman. 
No important change in Georgia. Then comes Illinois ; what will she 
do ? The answer is prompt : " Illinois withdraws the name of her gal- 
lant and beloved son, William R. Morrison, and casts her 45 votes for 
Winfield Scott Hancock." The tide has set in. Forty votes is a big 
jump, and the galleries, as well as the convention, see what is coming. 
" Hurrah for Hancock ! " It is the voice of thousands, and the Chair 
in vain tries to drown the clamor before it has run its course. But 
Indiana is not prepared to let go of Hendricks. He gets her full vote. 
Iowa strikes out for Randall with 12 votes, and Randall gets another 
cheer, but she gives 5 to Hancock, and then there is a yell which becomes 
a shout as Kansas gives him every one of hers, aud Louisiana aud Maine 
do the same. Maryland's handsome Governor still says Bayard, but 
Massachusetts says 11 for Hancock, and Michigan gives him 14. 
Henceforward the hundreds who are keeping tally take down the Han- 
cock figures only. Will he make it on this ballot? The crowd are 
impatient, and hisses are mingled with cheers when New York casts 70' 
votes for Randall. But no matter. Here is North Carolina with a solid 
20 for Hancock, a clear gain of 11 in that State. And Ohio? Not 
ready. She asks to withdraw. Call the next. Oregon gives Field 6. 



hlhK OF GEXEKAL HANCOCK. 41 

PENNSYLVANIA WAVERING. 

Pennsylvania? Every eye is fixed on the handsome cliairman who 
stands, paper iu hand, but not ready to vote. New York has been 
shrewd to put the wedge right here. There is hesitation. Hay says 
Pennsylvania is not ready to vote and asks to be passed. Yerkes, 
Meyers, and others are seen gesticulating and heard to say that Pennsyl- 
vania is ready. Hay says, quietly, " If the gentlemen will give me time 
to tally I shall announce the vote." "All right," was the cry, " Pass 
on." Little Phody gives her 6 to Hancock and 6 to Bayard. South 
Carolina is still standing like a stone wall for the Deluwarean. New 
Jersey splits, breaks all to pieces, but Hancock picks up 7. Eleven more 
from Texas, a solid 10 from Vermont, 7 from West Virginia, and Vir- 
ginia 7, and Wisconsin, the last on the list, 2, and the cheers meanwhile 
are continuous. Everybody has begun to add the Hancock figures. 
Then Pennsylvania comes in with 1 for Bayard, Randall, 26, and Han- 
cock, 31. Good for Randall and good for Hancock, but the crowd thinks 
it ought to have been solid for Hancock. Ohio is another disappoint- 
ment. Slie tries Thurman once more with 44 votes. Now there is a 
great rustling of papers and murmurs of voices. It runs from man to 
man that Hancock has climbed over 300. His nomination is assured. 
Why wait longer? Wisconsin is the first to seize the opportunity. She 
asks to change her vote and give it all to Hancock, making his total 326. 
And now the cheering is the greatest heard yet, but the volume of sound 
is stronger still as Stockton, of New Jersey, who has worked so hard for 
Bayard, shouts from the bottom of liis voice that New Jersey gives her 
whole vote to the gallant soldier of her sister State. Bedlam breaks 
loose. Nobody sits down. Everybody has gone mad and is hollering 
" Hancock ! " It is deafening. Is there no way of getting down to order 
so that any one of those dozen chairmen who have mounted their desks 
and are trying to catch either eye or ear of the Chair may be heard ? 
Apparently not, for the pounding of Stevenson's gavel simply urges the 
people to new demonstrations of delight. There is Hay, of Pennsylvania, 
and Weed, of New York, each trying to get ahead of the other, with 
William L. Scott, all three Tilden men and Randall men urging Hay on. 
Look where you will in that vast auditorium and there are frantic men 
waving hats and handkerchiefs, while the uproar is incessant. At length 
the Chair and the reporters hear Hay, if nobody else does, as he an- 
nounces that Pennsylvania is solid at last, and in time for the Tilden men 
to claim a full share iu the nomination casts her 58 votes for Hancock 
and victory. 

HANCOCK AND VICTORY. 

Hay has not felt it necessary to poll his delegation on the question. 
He knows where the hearts of these Pennsylvanians are and he takes th4 



42 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

Jiberty of speaking for them. It is a good deed well done, and the whole 
delegation rise to their feet to say amen with all their might, while the 
convention and spectators, taking in the situation with their eyes, rather 
than with their ears, shout louder and louder still. Wallace makes his 
appearance in the front rank on the platform and waves encouragement. 
The Randall Association have taken the cue from Hay and try to out- 
shout the Araericus Club. For once they yell together. The stampede 
to Hancock has begun and is fully under way. Every man in the oppo- 
sition who has not done so already wants to change his vote, but how are 
they going to do it in the midst of this hullabaloo? It is no use. Let 
the ballot take care of itself, and let everybody become as mad as every- 
body else. The flags bearing the names of the States that have not yet 
voted for Hancock are lifted one after another, raised in token of sur- 
render or assent and dipped to that of Pennsylvania. There is Ohio's, 
and there, at last, is New York's, and it is higher than all the rest. The 
banners are seen to come together in the middle aisle ; then one, larger 
than all the rest, is brought down from the platform over the president's 
chair and waved again and again. It bears on one side a fine portrait 
of the coming man, Winfield Scott Hancock, and on the other the soldier- 
statesman's own platform : " The right of trial by jury, the habeas corpus, 
liberty of the press, freedom of speech, the natural rights of persons and 
property, must be preserved." First one side and then the other is 
turned toward the audience, and it is hard to say which excites the 
greater enthusiasm. "This beats anything at Chicago," exclaims a 
veteran journalist who has attended other conventions. 

"HANCOCK, THE SUPERB;' NOMINATED. 

Half an hour is passed in this abandon of enthusiasm, and at last the 
crowd subsides into a semblance of order. It is simply exhausted. So 
many States wish to change their votes that it is determined to call the 
roll over again before the result is announced. They fall into line, little 
Delaware leading off as gallantly as ever, until every State but two has 
planted itself solidly under the Hancock banner. Indiana votes for 
Hendricks, and there are three scattering votes from other States. The 
result of the ballot is announced in a thundering voice by a clerk : Han- 
cock, 705; Hendricks, 30 ; Bayard, 2 ; Tilden, 1. It does not stay that 
way long. Indiana asked to be heard through both Voorhees and 
Black, and the convention, after another quarter of an hour's cheering, 
allows them to be heard. Voorhees, confessing the soreness over the 
defeat of Hendricks, moved to make the nomination of Hancock unani- 
mous. More cheering and long cheering. The band plays "Hail 
Columbia" and the "Star Spangled Banner.' The great organ at the 
other end of the hall chimes in grandly, and we have another quarter of 
an hour of bedlam. It is increased as Randall appears in the hall for 



LIFE OF GENEKAL HANCOCK. 43 

the first time and makes his way to the platform and through the crowd 
to the speaker's stand, with Wallace smiling and complacent at his side. 
We are on the eve of another reconciliation. A love-feast is beginning. 
The leaders of the Pennsylvania Democracy get the heartiest of cheers, 
long and loud. Wallace pushes Randall forward and there is a great 
shout as he opens his mouth to speak. He never appeared to better 
advantage. Self-possessed and beaming with smiles, he looks anything 
but a defeated candidate. He is very well satisfied with the one hun- 
dred and twenty-nine votes cast for him this morning in the face of 
defeat. Hay, Barr and others are a body-guard for the Senator and the 
Speaker. Randall's voice fills the hall as he seconds the motion to make 
the nomination of the Pennsylvania soldier unanimous. The nomina- 
tion is a wise one. It will bring the Keystone State into Democratic 
:unity. With Hancock Pennsylvania will be carried by the Democracy, 
and he promised to be second to none in untiring work to that end. 
There have been divisions in the party, but let it be understood that 
they are no more. Hancock will be elected and better still, if elected, 
he will be inaugurated. Randall's speech in full was as follows: 

RANDALL'S SPEECH. 
Fellow-Democrats : I am here to second the nomination of Penn- 
sylvania's son. General Hancock. [Applause.] Your deliberations 
have been marked by the utmost harmony, and your act is an expression 
of the heart of the American Democrat in every State in the Union. 
[Applause.] Not only is your nomination strong, but it is one that will 
bring us victory (applause), and we will add another State to the 
Democratic column — the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (ap- 
plause) — the keystone of the Federal ajch. Not only is it acceptable to 
every Democrat in the United States, but it is a nomination which will 
command the respect of the entire American people. [Applause.] I 
will not detain you longer than to say that you will find me in the front 
rank of this conflict, second to none, and that every energy of my mind 
and every energy of my brain will be given from now until we shall all 
rejoice in a common victory on the November Tuesday coming. [Ap- 
plause.] There is a great mission ahead of the Democratic party, and 
you have selected a standard-bearer whose very nomination means that, 
if the people ratify your choice, he will be inaugurated. I thank you 
for this cordial greeting, and I beg of you not to suppose for a moment 
I am in the least discomfited, but, on the contrary, my whole heart goes 
forth with your voice, and I will yield to no man in the effort which 
shall be made in behalf of your ticket, chosen this day. [Applause.] 

A SPEECH FROM WALLACE, 
The promise of a Democratic victory in Pennsylvania keeps up the 
whirl of excitement. Wallace is called for, and, after shaking hands 



44 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

with Randall, steps up and with his countenance glowing with enthu- 
siasm over a victory which he had helped bring about, thanks the 
national Democracy for the honor this day conferred on Pennsylvania. 
History repeats itself in this goodly city, where twenty years ago the 
Democracy nominated a Pennsylvanian, who was its last President, and 
where it now names its next. The policy of the Democrats under Han- 
cock must be aggression ! aggression ! aggression ! " We are one," said 
Wallace, in conclusion, looking at Randall, "and as one will be vic- 
torious." Wade Hampton hobbled next to the front, and the convention 
shut its big mouth for a few moments to hear him. It is another speech 
seconding Indiana's motion, and he pledges the solid South to the Union 
soldier. The love-feast goes on between cheering and speaking. Hoad- 
ley speaks for the Western Tilden men, and Faulkner, of New York, 
for the Eastern Tilden men. Before he leaves the stand the stumpy and 
bullet-headed John Kelly is seen away down at the door out of which he 
went yesterday as mad as a March hare. He, too, is coming to lay down 
his arms, or is it to celebrate the victory in which his defeat was swal- 
lowed up? "Kelly!" "Kelly!" is the cry on all sides. Kelly comes 
rio-ht along: and mounts the rostrum. Organ and band unite in an 
accompaniment to the applause, and several minutes pass before the 
" Boss " is able to speak. When he does he speaks sensibly. He pro- 
nounced the nomination just made "superb." He said it had united the 
Democracy of New York, and he had no doubt his brethren would agree 
with him in saying that past differences shall now be forgotten. 

NEW YORK UNITED. 

He and everybody else here looked at the brethren referred to — the 
regular delegation from New York. They sat silent for a moment while 
everybody else was cheering, and then rose as one man and joined in the 
chorus, whereupon the convention and galleries went wild again. After 
Kelly got through. Colonel Fellows, of the anti-Tammany delegation, 
came forward and made an eloquent speech in the same strain. When 
he concluded, Tammany and anti-Tammany in their persons shook hands 
and almost fell upon each other's necks. Fellows said that Hancock 
should hear again the roar of Ham})ton's guns, but this time on the same 
side, and all over the laud there would be peace and its attendant bless- 
ings. Both Kelly and Fellows gave their assurance that New York 
would give Hancock and the reunited Democracy 50,000 majority. Of 
the many dramatic and sensational incidents of the day this reconciliation 
was not the least significant, and people once more abandoned themselves 
to cheering for Hancock, while the Hendricks, Randall, and other ban- 
ners were brought to the front, with that of Hancock leading the proces- 
sion of banner-bearers. This way of making Hancock's nomination 
unanimous, which was finally done, had been going on four hours and 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK., 45 

there is no telling when it would have ended had not a committee of 
woman suffragists, with Susan B. Anthony at their head, appeared at the 
bar of the convention with a petition in their hand. It was a variation 
that diverted the attention of the audience, and, when the venerable 
Susan's long paper had been read, President Stevenson was able to get 
it down to business again. 

ENGLISH FOR VICE-PRESIDENT. 

The rest of the work was soon dispatched. The platform, read by 
Watterson, was voted a good one and some of the planks were loudly 
cheered. Then came the nomination for the Vice-President. It was 
made with unexpected unanimity. Alabama led off with the nomination 
of William H. English, of Indiana, and the nomination was seconded by 
every State in the Union. There was another nomination by Irish, of 
Iowa, who spoke for Bishop, of Ohio, but nobody took kindly to it and 
it was withdrawn. There was a grand and final outburst of enthusiasm 
when English received the nomination unanimously and by acclama- 
tion, and, after picking up the fag-ends of business, the convention ad- 
journed. It is safe to say that every Democrat and the many thousands 
gathered believe that day's work a great one for the party. Meanwhile 
telegrams came in from all parts of the country assuring the magnates of 
the party that the ticket is the best that could have been framed. Among 
these telegrams are one from Samuel J. Tilden, one from Allan G. Thur- 
man, one from Thomas F. Bayard, and Samuel J. Randall has spoken 
to-day by his own voice and the votes of his friends. 

GENERAL HANCOCK AT HIS HOME. 

Congratulations Sent to Him by Public Men and Fellow~ Soldiers in all Parts 
of the Country. — How he Received the News. — An Emphatic Contradiction 
of the Latest Slander About Mrs. Surratt. 

General Hancock learned early of the action of the convention. He 
had had two telegraph instruments put in the headquarters building, and 
for some days these were kept steadily in use by friends of the General 
in the convention and in the country generally. During the session of 
the Convention General Hancock had been very well informed about its 
doings. Had another name been chosen in the place of his own, no one, 
either of his general acquaintance or his more intimate friends and staff 
officers, would have noticed any change in his deportment. He was 
anxious and watched for messages, but his attention to the routine duties 
of his post was not relaxed, and, on his way from the room where he had 
heard his name announced as that of the Democratic choice for President, 
he stopped to call the attention of a laborer to the danger he ran in 
working in the hot sun. The despatches of the night before had con- 
veyed the information that advocates of other names than that of 



46 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

Hancock, and other, perhaps misinformed, persons had started a rumor 
that General Hancock, as President of the court-martial that had tried 
Mrs. Surratt, had written a letter to certain surgeons of Washington 
offering them the body of Mrs. Surratt for purposes of dissection. It 
was an utterly untrustworthy rumor from many points of view. The 
execution, it will be recalled, took place in July, 1865, in a very hot 
season, and it M'as reported at the time that the bodies were burned at 
once by the military authorities without even the removal of the caps 
from the faces of the dead. To those who had sufficient knowledge of 
the inside history of that trial the rumor was palpably cut out of whole 
cloth, for, compared with the other Federal officers at Washington at the 
time. General Hancock was particularly solicitous to spare, in every pos- 
sible way, the feelings of the friends and relatives of Mrs. Surratt. 
There were thousands of others, too, who disbelieved the report from 
their general knowledge of General Hancock and his personal character. 
While crossing over to the island in a Whitehall boat, the ferry not being 
open at that hour, the report of a gun from Castle William told of 
sunrise. People living on Brooklyn Heights and even well up-town in 
New York city, who had listened to this same gun for years, were 
aroused by its particularly sharp, loud and clear discharge, and it was 
remarked by many persons during the day that it had never been heard 
so loudly and clearly before. When our representative crossed the fine 
lawn on the western side of the island, and approached the residence of 
the General in command. General Hancock was seen sitting in one of the 
large easy-chairs scattered about on the broad veranda, enjoying the 
sweet-scented air from the grass which had been cut the day before. 
General Hancock had on a long morning-gown, and was engaged in 
conversation with an officer of his staff, and giving directions as to the 
department work of the day. 

With a "Good morning; you are an early caller," the General wel- 
comed the reporter. When his attention was called to the rumor which 
had been circulated about him his brow contracted for a moment. 
"Why, it's a lie; of course it's a lie. Everybody who knows me knows 
that," he said. " There are plenty of men down there who know all the 
circumstances. Say it is a downright utter falsehood without one scin- 
tilla of foundation." Then, as if the novelty of his own position flashed 
upon him, he turned to the reporter and, with considerable warmth, said: 
"I'm not on the defensive. I have nothing to defend myself from. 
Why should I be questioned for what other people have the audacity to 
say about me ? " 

Picking up the paper which he had thrown down, G neral Hancock 
looked again at the statement of the charges and again exclaimed : 
"Pshaw! they are not worth contradicting. Nobody caj believe them; 
they are so palpably false. Come into the house, and 1 11 tell you the 
names of some who can give you the facts." 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 47 

The house is a comfortable square builcHiig, with a front view over 
the loug, wide lawn and parade ground, while at the rear is Buttermilk 
Channel. The hall runs through the house to the south. On the 
first floor the long parlor is on one side and the dining-room is on the 
other. Back of the dining-room is the office of the General. 

Seating himself at his desk and offering a seat to the reporter, he said: 
" You must understand that I cannot hold an interview to-day with any 
person on any subject ; it would not be proper for me to do so, but on 
this particular point you will find men in Cincinnati who will tell you 
all about it, and can answer it as it comes up." 

"Who may they be?" 

" General F. A. Darr, of New York, of No. 75 Murray street, will tell 
you all that is necessary on that question. He is not alone either ; there 
are many men who are perfectly informed, and who will confound any- 
body who brings up such questions. You may go to Tarbox, of Massa- 
chusetts. I do not know that he has been a special friend of mine in the 
convention, but he knows the facts and can speak with authority. Major 
Haverty — he will tell you everything. S. T. Glover, of Missouri, also 
is able to speak, and will tell you enough to quash any such lies. I do 
not know that I should say any more, and am sorry that you should 
have had occasion for a visit over here. I am afraid it is to be a hot 
day, and hope that the convention may soon secure a good man." 

From another source, without reaching out by telegraph to any of the 
gentlemen named by General Hancock, the Surratt rumor was shown to 
be false by the evidence of a friend of the Surratt family, one with whom 
Miss Surratt found a home after the death of her mother. 

On Governor's Island a few hours afterwards the General was again 
met. The news of his nomination reached him at 12.20 and was con- 
tained in the brief announcement, " Hancock is nominated." Captain 
Wharton, an aide-de-camp, conveyed the news to him. His first ques- 
tion was : " What do you think of it?" Then very soon the wires began 
to bring in the despatches of congratulation. In the forenoon the Gen- 
eral had come to New York on private business, but was back in time 
to first hear of his nonjination on the island. " You must excuse me 
from saying anything," said he upon the occasion of the second visit, 
" for as yet I cannot consider myself anything more than a private citizen, 
for I have not yet been officially informed of the honor that has been 
done me. I can honestly say that it was somewhat of a surprise to me." 

"What will your jwlicy be, General?" 

" Democratic, of course. Whether in or out of the high office of Presi- 
dent. I believe that honest self-government is the highest gift a people 
can have, and that is in a nutshell what I believe to be the spirit of 
Democracy and the Cincinnati Convention." 

" But, General " 



48 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

" No. I thank you for your visit, but don't try to interview me now. 
Under the circumstances it would not be proper. There are a large num- 
ber of telegrams from public men and others, and these you may see, for 
they are in a measure public." 

The day was a sort of a holiday on Governor's Island. Every Thurs- 
day afternoon the band from David's Island comes down and plays in 
the music-stand on the lawn from 4 to 5 o'clock. The broad piazza of 
the Commanding General's House was especially crowded by post officers, 
as well as by people from the city, all of whom plied the General with 
every form of congratulation. Among the visitors were Lieutenant- 
Colonel C. McKeever, Assistant Adjutant-General ; Colonel Nelson H. 
Davis, Inspector-General ; Major Asa B. Gardner, Judge- Advocate ; 
Lieutenant-Colonel A. J. Perry, Chief Quartermaster; Lieutenant- 
Colonel H. F. Clarke, Chief of the Commissary Department ; Dr. John 
Y. Cuyler, Division Surgeon ; Colonel Nathan W. Brown, Chief Pay- 
master; Captain N. G. Mitchell, Acting Engineer Officer; Colonel J. B. 
Fry, Adjutant-General; Major R. Arnold, Inspector-General of the 
Department ; Captain H. G. Litchfield, of the Second Artillery, now in 
charge of the rifle practice of the department, and General T. L. Critten- 
den, in charge of the Recruiting Department. 

The telegrams during the afternoon came in thick and fast. The first 
one was from Mr. Tilden. Out of the hundreds received the following 
are selected : 

" I cordially congratulate you upon your nomination . 

" Samuel J. Tilden." 

Mr. Tilden also sent the following despatch to Cincinnati : 

" Hon. W. H. Barnum : Your telegram is received announcing the 
nomination of General Hancock. I congratulate you upon this auspicious 
result. "S. J. T." 

"Accept ray sincere congratulations on your nomination. That you 
will be elected I have uo doubt. "A. G. Thurman. 

"Columbus, O." 

" I beg to tender you my sincere congratulations on your nomination. 
" Cleveland, O. " H. B. Payne." 

" INIy hearty congratulations. New Jersey sons will stand by you as 
their sires did by Revolutionary patriots. "Theo. F. Randolph." 

"Your nomination is honorable alike to you and to the great Demo- 
cratic party. No one congratulates you more sincerely and no one will 
strive more heartily to elect you than I, "T. F. Bayard. 

"Wilmington, Del., June 24." 

"My Dear Sir: Neither too soon nor too heartily can I express my 
great delight at your nomination for the Presidency. The convention in 



lAFK OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 49 

honoring you with its confidence honored itself and faithfully expressed 
the wish of the great Democratic party. With you for our candidate I 
feel that victory is assured. " Henry Hilton." 

"We have just thrown you our solid vote, and congratulate you upon 
your nomination. " Wm. A. Wallace." 

" You are our nominee. Congratulations. " Daniel Dougherty." 
" Hearty congratulations to the next President of the United States. 

" Wm. Pinkney Whyte." 

" Dear Sir • The nomination makes me much gladder than you. 

" Joseph E. Johnston." 

" With all my soul I congratulate the Republic, rather than yourself, 
on your nomination. " E. John Ellis." 

" The hills of Berks reverberate with 100 guns in honor of your 
victory. Thanks to God for the triumph of the people in November 
assured. " S. E. Ancona. 

" Reading, Pa." 

" Mississippi is faithful to you and will do her whole duty. 

" Columbus, Miss. " Beverly Matthew.'* 

" The young Democracy of Alabama sends greetings to our next 
President, and pledges a hearty and enthusiastic support. 

" Montgomery, Ala. " Benj. Fitzpatrick, 

" T. G. Foster, Committee." 

"Allow me to offer my cordial congratulations and confident predic- 
tions of your triumph in November. " Norvin Green. 
"New York." 

"Glory in the highest! Victory is ours. Accept my heartiest con- 
gratulations. " Sam. M. Gains. 
" Hopkiusville, Ky." 

" New Haven will give you 3,500 majority and Connecticut her six 
electoral votes. The Elm City is enthusiastic for you. 

" New Haven. " E. M. Graves, 

" Cor. Secy. Cent. Dem. Club, New Haven." 

" Heartfelt congratulations from old members of Second Corps. Suc- 
cess. " Charles J. Murphy. 
"Boston." 

"Accept the congratulations of the Democracy of Minnesota. 
"St. Paul, Minn. "William Lee, 

"Chairman State Committee." 

" You have my sincere coDgratulation. Indiana will indorse you. 
" Cincinnati. " John Love." 

4 



50 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

" Please accept my most hearty cougratulations. 

" West Point. " J. M. Schofield. 

" Your nomination consolidates the friends of good government and 
your election is assured. " Demarest Barnes. 

" New York." 

"I heartily congratulate you, the Democratic party, and the whole 
country on your nomination. " W. P. Buckmaster. 

" New York." 

"My friend, God be praised I The country is safe! Your election 
is sure ! " H. H. Sibley, 

" St. Paul, Minn. " Ex-Governor." 

" Hurrah I Congratulations from Texas and 

" Houston, Tex. « Ord." 

"I heartily congratulate you on your nomination, and regard your 
election as certain. " John J. Cisco. 

" New York, June 24." 

" I congratulate you. "John Bigelow. 

"New York City." 

" We congratulate you on your nomination. New York is sure for 
your election. "John Kelly, 

"Cincinnati. "AuG. Schell." 

"Your nomination creates great enthusiasm. The Democracy of 
Louisiana send most cordial greetings. " J. B. Eustis, 

"New Orleans, June 24th." " President State Central Committee. 

" I suppose a Republican friend may be permitted to congratulate you. 
" Plymouth, N. H. " Timothy Davis." 

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow. 

"Plarrisburg, Pa. "Dr. Hayes." 

" Allow me to congratulate you. Second Corps ahead as usual. 
" Trenton. " Gershom Mott." 

" Enthusiasm over your nomination intense. Randall just spoke. 
Vote unanimous. Nothing could have prevented the nomination. 

"Duncan S. Walker, 
"Cincinnati. "Secretary Democratic National Committee." 

"Receive my heartfelt congratulations. Your nomination means your 
election. The Constitution and the Union will be safe when the laws 
are administered by one whose valor on the field was only equalled by 
his wisdom in the councils. " Wm. Saulsbury. 

"Dover, Del." 

"The only Democratic journal in Philadelphia presents its congratula- 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 51 

tions and rejoices that Cincinnati's assembled Democrats indorses the 
Chronide's choice. Victory is sure. From the journals in the United 
States the first to publish your nomination. 

"Philadelphia. "D. F. Dealt, Editor." 

"Cowan's old battery boys send you greeting. 

"Auburn, N. Y. "W. E. Webster." 

" I congratulate you for your nomination for President, and predict 
your election and complete restoration of peace to all sections. Your 
life-long friend, "John W. Forney. 

"Cincinnati." 

"The first Hancock Club organized in the United States sends its 
greetings and congratulations to the next President of the United States. 
"Atchison, Kan. "B. H. Waggoner, President Hancock Club." 

" Our warmest congratulations. We go into the fight with our whole 
heart, and we know that at last success belongs to the party with you as 
a standard-bearer. " Wm. McClelland. 

"S. A. Cosgrove. 

" Pittsburg. " P. N. Guthrie." 

" The people of Mooile are rejoiced at your nomination. 

" Mobile, Ala. " Thos. P. Herdon, M. C. 1st Con. Dist." 

" Buell tells me that Murat Halstead says Hancock's nomination by 
confederate brigadiers set the old rebel yell to the music of the Union. 
How is that for a key-note of campaign ? It will be solemn music for 
Republicans to face. " Wm. A. Wallace. 

" Cincinnati." 

" The Veterans of Oneida congratulate you. The Pibneer Hancock 
Club has just been organized, with General James J. Gridley, of the 
Fifth Corps, as President. General Gridley is a prominent Republican, 
and was Chairman of the convention that elected Senator Conkling a 
delegate in February last. Gettysburg and victory ! 

" Utica. " Fifth Corps." 

"Alabama greets the peerless soldier and statesman of our common 
country, and when its drum beats roll-call in November she will respond 
with ten electoral votes and 50,000 majority for our gallant standard- 
bearer. " R. W. Cobb and six others. 

" Montgomery, Ala." 

" We rejoice in your nomination. The safety of the whole Union is 
now assured. Reconciliation and prosperity await your administration. 
" Portsmouth, Va. " Wm. W. Chamberlain." 

"Accept my heartfelt congratulations on your nomination. 

" St. Louis. " B. Gratz Brown." 



62 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCX)OK. 

" I sincerely congratulate you, and greet you as our next President. 
" Cincinnati. " Eppa Hunton." 

" With all my heart I congratulate you. I have expected this result 
for the last twelve years. You will be elected. 

" Cincinnati. " D. W. Voorhees." 

" Please accept my heartiest congratulations. Ohio is already booming 
for you. " Milton Sayler. 

" Cincinnati." 

"Allow me to offer you my sincere congratulations. I may equally 
congratulate the party and the country on the good fortune which led the 
convention to the selection it has made and on the excellent prospect of 
the ratification of its choice by the American people. * 

" Milwaukee, Wis. "Alexander Mitchell." 

" Hearty congratulations. With enthusiasm over your nomination 
California wheels into line and will give you her electoral votes. 

" Wm. D. English, Chairman Democratic State Committee. 
" San Francisco." 

"Congratulations from Quincy Herald. The city ablaze with enthu- 
siasm. Democrats united and happy. Three cheers for Hancock and 
English. " Quincy Herald. 

" Quincy, 111." 

" Texas sends her warmest greeting. She will give the ticket over 
100,000 majority. My State has long wished to pay this tribute to the 
soldier who ceased fighting when the war was over and upheld the civil 
power. We shall win. 

"Cincinnati, m " R. B. Hubbard, of Texas Delegation." 

Governor's Island was as excited as it is possible for a quiet army post 
to be. For some time it had been evident that something unusual was 
doing, though it required a sharp eye to detect any unusual movement. 
The Warren Court of Inquiry has kept General Hancock engaged for 
months, he being President of the court. He has listened with patience 
to the often repeated story of the battle of Five Forks, so that he has 
become familiar with the position of every regiment at each of the move- 
ments on April 1, 1865. While orderlies came and went with notes in 
regard to the business of the post, the General did not allow any of the 
evidence to escape him, and at the least error on the part of a witness, he 
would make a correction at once to prevent the mistake from going on 
the record. Sometimes after Mr. Stickney and Major Grardner, counsel 
respectively for General Warren and General Sheridan, had spent time in 
asking scores of questions to bring the witnetis round to a certain point, 
General Hancock would put one or two coiiiprohepisive questions which 
would lead to the desired result. A favorite final question was, " Did 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 53 

you do all you could on that day, according to the best of your judgment, 
to help on the battle? " His anxiety to become thorouglily familiar with 
the details of the evidence brought out was shared by Generals Augur 
and Newton, his associates. On Thursday of the week previous the Court 
adjourned until Monday, as it was found difficult to secure the attend- 
ance of witnesses, many of them being delegates to the convention. 
Whatever consultation with "managers" there had been on the part of 
General Hancock had not interfered with his duties as Mjijor-Geueral 
commanding the Division of the Atlantic, and every detail had been so 
carefully attended to that the division had sustained its reputation of 
being the best conducted of the several divisions of the United States 
Army. Major-Geueral Hancock is now the senior Major-General of the 
array, his appointment dating back to July 26, 1866. Major-General 
Schofield, in command at West Point, is next in order of seniority, 
having held the rank since March 4, 1869. General Irvin McDowell, 
who is now in command on the Pacific slope, is the third. The Division 
of the Atlantic and the Department of the East, over which General 
Hancock has command, includes the States of Wisconsin, Michigan, In- 
diana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, 
New York, Pennsylvania, the New England States, the District of 
Columbia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Ken- 
tucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama. 

A SLANDER REFUTED. 

Jlie Testimony Reproduced of a Priest as to General Hancoeh's Gentle 
Bearing in the Sui'ratt Case. 

The brave priest who shrived Mrs. Surratt bears witness to the Gen- 
eral's just and gentle bearing — a wicked invention blown to the winds by 
a dozen honest words which follow below. 

The mention of General Hancock's name in connection with the 
Presidential nomination led, as his friends supposed it would lead, 
to spiteful outcro})pings over the hanging of Mrs. Surratt, an affair which 
his official position just after the war compelled him to direct. In the 
Indianapolis Journal an interview was printed about General Hancock, 
of which the following is part: 

"The Democrats can't nominate General Hancock," said a Catholic 
priest to me the other day, in response to my expression of opinion. 

"Why not?" I asked. 

"Because," he said, with much feeling, "he hanged Mrs. Surratt with- 
out cause, and persecuted her for her religion." 

"I don't see how he hanged her," said I, "more than General Holt, 
who was Judge Advocate, or Stanton, who was Secretary of War, or 
Andy Johnson, who was President." 

" Hancock," exclaimed the priest, " had her immediate custody^ and 



54 LIFE OF GENERAL IIAXCOCK. 

he absolutely refused to let her see her clergyman or any clergyman of 
her church after she was sentenced. He did all he could to send the 

woman to ; but no doubt her earnest request for clergy was 

passed to her credit in the books beyond the sky." 

" I never heard of that," I said. 

"Well, Catholics have," said the priest, "and if Hancock should arise 
and have the impudence to ask for Catholic votes, they would bury him 
under their indignation." 

The above extract appeared in the Post. Our representative called 
upon Rev. Father Walter, of St. Patrick's Church, with this interview. 
He was Mrs. Surratt's adviser, and he it was whom General Hancock 
was ci'edited with having insulted. Father Walter is a tall, square- 
shouldered man, with enough fire in his face and vigor in his movements 
to make one almost wish that he and General Hancock could put on the 
gloves together, they are so nearly matched. 

" ' I am glad you came,' he said, ' for this isn't the first of these flings 
at General Hancock. I have blamed myself often for not declaring the 
truth in the matter, for I am the only one that should tell it, so far as 
it concerns myself. Yet, being a priest, I have felt bound to hold my 
peace. Besides, so far no tangible harm has resulted from silence. For 
some weeks back, though, I have seen that circumstances might arise 
which should change my determination; this attack seems to me to call 
for the kind of response that will make such objections to General Han- 
cock impossible in the future. That is what I said to-day to Bishop 
Keane, of Richmond, when I informed him that I had about decided to 
brand all such stories as false over my own signature.' 

" - Would you object to doing it now?' the reporter asked. 

" ' Not at all,' Father Walter replied, and, seating himself at a table, 
he wrote this denial : 

" Truth and justice compel me to deny the statement with reference 
to General Hancock's participation in the execution of Mrs. Surratt, which 
a])peared in the Washington Post of this morning. I attended Mrs. 
Surratt on that occasion, and met with no interference on the part of 
General Hancock. General Hancock had great sympathy for this unfor- 
tunate lady, and waited until the last moment, hoping for a reprieve. I 
consider it an act of justice to General Hancock that this statement should 
be made. (Signed), "J. A. Walter, 

" Pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Washington." 

" ' There. That is the first statement I have made for the public in 
all these years,' Father Walter said, a trifle sadly. * I hope it may be the 
means of enough good to compensate for all the harm that these stories 
have done.' 

"An assertion made by an ex -army officer was abundantly corroborated 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 55 

in the War Department that so strong was General Hancock's liope for 
.a reprieve for Mrs. Surratt that on the day of the execution he stationed 
relays of cavalry along the streets from the White House to the Arsenal 
that no delay might ensue in communicating the fact. In the Arsenal 
are photographs of the scaifold at the time of the execution. They show 
Father Walter at Mrs. Surratt's side." 

This was followed by another despatch published November 25th, as 
follows : 

'' Washington, November 24. — When General Hancock was here 
last week he met tiie Rev. Father Walter at the house of a mutual friend. 
General Hancock's carriage was at the door, and after the visit Father 
Walter entered the carriage at General Hancock's request and they drove 
off together. Their conversation lasted for nearly an hour. From an 
army officer who knew what was said it seemed that General Hancock 
began the conversation by thanking Father Walter for the statement and 
card he had published in Tlie World about the defamatory stories in con- 
nection with the hanging of Mrs. Surratt. * That denial alone was neces- 
sary,' General Hancock said, ' to destroy a vicious falsehood, and it was 
sufficient to do it.' Father Walter replied that he felt he had done 
merely his duty, and that while he was by no means inclined to arouse 
bad feeling in the matter he thought that while the press were disposing 
of it they might as well at the same time place the blame for the execu- 
tion where it belonged, upon Andrew Johnson. ' When the time for the 
execution had been fixed,' he said, ' I went to President Johnson to urge 
a postponement for a few days. Mr. Johnson peremptorily refused to 
postpone the execution and acted as though he suspected I would be led 
to hope that one favor might be followed by others, and that eventually 
a reprieve might justly be demanded. I tried to disabuse him of such 
an impression by declaring that if he would grant us but ten days no 
other favor would be asked of him. Shortly before the execution I 
called at the White House a second time. My card was returned with a 
message that Mr. Johnson would not see me. I asked him then for a 
hearing of ten minutes, but he refused ; then for two minutes, and he 
still refused. There was no reason in his refusal, and I hope he felt at 
the time of his impeachment trial that the refusal of the Senate to grant 
him ten days in which to prepare a defence was in a measure retributive.' 

'' A letter was received by an army officer here from one of General 
Hancock's most intimate associates a few days after the publication in 
Tlie World of Fatlier Walter's statement, which said that General Han- 
cock was highly gratified at the course of The World regarding the affair, 
and that both he and his friends felt that the prompt refutation through 
The World had set the infamous stories at rest forever. 

"Ex-Governor Hartranft, in conversation to-day about the stories in 
connection with the execution of Mrs. Surratt, said he was glad that they 



56 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

had been effectually disproved : that he himself had immediate charge of 
tlie executiou, aud that afterwards he received letters from Mrs. Surratt's 
daughter aud others thanking him for the consideration he had shown 
both to the prisoners and their friends." 

All honest Democrats and all good men will thank Father Walter, 
of Washington City, for the frank and manly testimony which he bears 
to the humane and honorable conduct of General Hancock in the deplor- 
able case of Mrs. Surratt. Not upon this brave soldier and true conserv- 
ative citizen rests the stain of blood for the wicked murder of that " most 
unfortunate lady." In peace, as in war, General Hancock has loyally 
done his duty at no matter what cost to his own private feelings. Of 
him as of the Iron Duke it may be truly said: "Whatever record leaps 
to light, he never shall be shamed." 

COL. JOHN W. FORNEY SPEAKS. 

Tliere are many deathless days in the American memory ; among them 
the attack upon the American flag in Charleston Harbor on the 12th of 
April, 1861, the battle of Gettysburg on the 1st, 2d and 3d days of 
July, 18G3, the fall of Richmond on tlie 9th day of April, 1865, and the 
assassination of Abraham Lincoln, on the 14tli day of April, 1865. No 
days in human history ever aroused a more agonizing solicitude, or 
closed upon more gigantic transactions, or opened a wider vista of human 
possibilities. Each of these events had a strange and almost providential 
meaning. Each possessed the peculiar quality of conquering in an 
instant millions of prejudices. The ball fired at the old flag from 
Charleston consolidated the North and struck down human slavery^ 
The victory of Gettysburg saved the second great city of the Union from 
the flames. The fall of Richmond was the certain rise of the Republic, 
and the death of Lincoln consecrated his great mission of forgiveness to 
all. When we come to notice the annals of our Civil War, these four 
events, with the emancipation of the slaves, on the 1st of January, 1863, 
will be to the historian like so many planets, shedding light on all other 
objects, and marshalling the way to the final lesson and duty of the 
patriot. Each was a revolution in itself, affecting the remotest interests, 
and leaving all men in a new condition of thought and self-examination. 

But none of these tragedies wrought a deeper sensation or gave birth 
to a more lasting gratitude than the battle of Gettysburg, 1863. Here 
at least is one of those occurrences that cannot easily be forgotten. The 
human race is prone to forget. One f)hilosopher says that ingratitude is 
the badge of all our tribe; but like all maxims it is best proved by the 
exceptions. In this instance we cannot if we would, and, thank God, 
we would not, if we could, blot out what that defeat of the Conlederates 
did for the city of Philadelphia. Happily it is not so long ago as to 
have faded out of our minds. It is only seventeen years since, and it 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 57 

was a clay of such sharp agony and such universal terror, and the victory 
was such an unspeakable relief that even the children now grown to niea 
and women think of it as gratefully as the middle-aged and the grand- 
mothers and grandfathers. It was the single instance in which the fiery 
blast of war came close to a great Northern metropolis. The Confeder- 
ates advanced in tremendous force. Led by their beloved General Lee 
and by his chosen lieutenants, they seemed resolved to make a last stand 
in the rich valleys of Franklin and Adams, choosing, as if by instinct, 
the regions called after two of the most precious names in American 
history. Grant was engaged at the same moment winding his fatal coils 
around the southern city of Vicksburg; but the point most vital to all 
at that supreme moment was the field of Gettysburg. 

What Philadelphian can ever forget the suspense of those July days ? 
There was not a household that did not throb and thrill between hope 
and fear. There were over one hundred thousand men, thousands of 
them from Philadelphia and the neighboring towns ; and there was not 
a family that did not tremble for its loved ones engaged in that fatal 
strife, or that did not shudder at the advance of the foe who seemed so 
near, or that did not fancy in that advance the loss of the holy cause of 
the Union. 

On the morning of the Fourth of July, 1863, I was at the Union 
League, then on Chestnut Street near 11th, Philadelphia, in the mas- 
sive building now occupied by the family of the beloved Matthew 
Baldwin. The rooms and gardens of the lovely mansion were filled to 
overflowing with pale, anxious men ; the streets were full of a silent, 
waiting crowd ; the sidewalks and windows were crowded with women ; 
even the children were awed into silence, as their elders discussed in 
whispers the possibilities of the dreadful fight in the green valleys of the 
Cumberland. Reynolds had been killed on the 2d of July, along with 
tiiousands of others, and his brother, James L,, came from Lancaster, in 
this State, bowed down with terror at the sacrifice, and humble women 
were sobbing over the dispatches already recording their losses. It was 
a day of tears and despair. I had been present at other scenes of sorrow, 
but nothing like this Fourth of July, 1863. The commandment of this 
department was General J. A. J. Dana, and his office was in Girard 
Street near Twelfth, and I held a position as a consulting member of his 
staff. About noon of that Saturday I saw his tall form crossing Chestnut 
Street to the League, and when his eye caught mine I saw he was in 
tears. He handed me a dispatch from General Meade, just received. I 
opened and tried to read it, but could not. I saw enough to feel that 
we were saved. And soon the good news became universal. Then all 
hearts exploded with joy over the deliverance. It was a Avonderful sight, 
that sudden change from grief to gratitude. Some shed tears, some 
shouted in joy, old foes became frieudsj and even infidels joined in the 



58 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

spontaneous prayers of the preacliers. Robert Browning's thrilling 
poem describing the man who carried the "good news to Ghent," which 
broke the siege and filled the souls of the Flemish with a deep thanks- 
giving to God, might have been paraplirased in honor of the messenger 
who brought such happiness to oppressed, and terrified, and despairing 
Philadelphia. 

Who won that great fight? Who saved Philadelphia from fire and 
spoil ? Who drove back the enemy, and saved us from a fate of which 
the burning of Chambcrsburg and Carlisle and the forced contributions 
upon York were intended to be grim preparations? A brave army of 
patriotic citizens, led by three Pennsylvania generals : George Gordon 
Meade, of Philadelphia ; John Fulton Reynolds, of Lancaster ; and 
Winfield Scott Hancock, of INIontgomery. Meade and Reynolds are 
both gone. Meade died on the 6th of November, 1872, in the house 
presented to his wife by the people of Philadelphia, afterwards supple- 
mented by a contribution of one hundred thousand dollars from the same 
source. Reynolds was killed in battle on the 2d of July, and is buried 
at Lancaster. Hancock is to-day the Democratic candidate for President 
of the United States. 

To show how I felt at the critical moment, seventeen years ago, I 
reprint what I wrote iu The Press on Tuesday, the 7th of July, 1863, 
not only to prove my plain duty to General Hancock, as the survivor 
of this glorious triumvirate, but also the duty of all the people of Phila- 
delphia to that incomparable soldier. I recall it at once as a personal 
pledge and promise, and the solemn covenant of a great community to 
a great soldier : 

" Meanwhile, the Army of the Potomac, suddenly placed under the 
command of General Meade, whom we are proud to claim as a fellow- 
citizen, hastened northward, and fell upon the rash and audacious enemy. 
We know the result. Neither our children, nor our children's children, 
to the remotest generation, shall ever forget it, or fail to remember it with 
a thrill of gratitude and honest pride. The rebels were assailed with un- 
exampled fury, and the gallant General Reynolds, a Pennsylvania sol- 
dier, laid down his life. The struggle raged for several days, the losses 
on both sides were fearful, and still the result seemed doubtful. If we 
should fail, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, perhaps New York, 
would be doomed. In this crisis of the nation's fate it was Pennsylvania 
that came to the rescue. It was General Hancock, a Pennsyl- 

VANIAN, WHO so NOBLY BORE THE BRUNT OF THE BaTTLE ON CEME- 
TERY Hill." 

I do not stop to debate the other considerations that enter into this 
vital issue ; the grave considerations that demand the release of ray dear 
native State from the desperate meu who, iu the last ten years, have 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 59 

•coldly crusned out tlie pride of our people, and placed under the iron 
heel of brutal inferiority the hopes of our youth and manliood, making 
of this fair commonwealth a vast political Golgotha, and of our proud 
city of Philadelphia an offensive roost for the most desperate and vulgar 
mercenaries since the black days of Tweed and Tammany in New York. 
I do not sto]) to debate these considerations now. It is not the iime. 
But this is the time to open to the common mind our pledged word to 
the last of tlie great soldiers who placed us under au obligation that we 
hastened to avow, and repeated over and over again. INIy own pledge 
binds me as my own note of hand. In law if it had been signed to the 
promise to pay a money debt I could be held by it, and my estate if I 
failed to pay it. In morals it is as solemn as if I had gone before a 
magistrate aud sworn to abide by it. And what is true of myself is 
equally binding upon others. What my fixed judgment, private and 
public, is of the men who saved tlie American Republic, I have not con- 
cealed. It is a passion that grows stronger the more I see the value of 
what has been saved to ourselves and to all mankind. I feel it as the 
rescue of human freedom for the ages to come. I prize it, this overthrow 
of the Rebellion, as the best blessing to the South which made that rebel- 
lion. I cherish it because the more I ponder the priceless value of the 
enormous destiny so saved, the more eager I am to convince the South 
that they must aid to perpetuate it. When I severed my connection 
with the Democratic party twenty-tliree years ago, in company with 
Stephen A. Douglas, Daniel Dougherty, David C. Broderick, and later, 
with Daniel S. Dickinson, IVIatt. Carpenter, John A. Logan, and many 
more, it was because that party seemed dedicated to the cause of slavery 
and rebellion. With victory over both, with emancipation declared and 
obeyed, with free opinion all over the land assured and sufficiently estab- 
lished, with Kansas au empire of liberty under the resistless doctrine of 
popular sovereignty, all my prejudices against the South vanished, and 
I, who would at one time have seen the rebels pursued with all the 
penalties of the law, and all the rigors of the war, speedily saw that I 
might have been a " rebel " if I had lived in the South, and that I must, 
to use Abraham Lincoln's loving maxim, " put yourself in their place," 
and forgive them, as I hope God will forgive me my transgressions. 
Hence, ever since General Grant's first election I labored to convince my 
old Southern friends that have been forced to stay in the Union, that we 
intended to keep them in by love ; and Grant knows how often I pleaded 
with him to bear with them, to remember that they were still our own, 
that we had both been reared as Democrats, aud that we had known the 
South, he in the army in Mexico, and I in my long years of residence 
in AVashington, and must maJ<e allowances for them. And how will- 
ingly the great soldier listened to me is proved by his many attempts to 
show his anxiety to aid aud help the South, I need not say. 



60 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

And now the Democratic party comes forth with fresh gifts of repent- 
ance. Now they again proffer new proofs of their submission to the 
ideas that conquered them, and present two men for the votes of the 
people at the next Presidential election, one of them a UJe-long friend, to 
whom, as I have shown, nil of lis in Philadelphia owe a debt that lie made 
for us, and v:]iich, if ive lived a thousand years, we could not repay. I 
accept the responsibility. Twenty-two years ago in General Hancock's 
own native county of Montgomery, when lie was a very young soldier, 
I si)oke at Mill Creek, Conshohocken, October 2d, 1858, and surrounded 
by thousands of Democrats, I demanded that James Buchanan should 
])ay his debt to freedom. He gave me his note that he would allow the 
people of Kansas to frame their own laws in their own way; and in that 
movement among the most active friends of free Kansas were Hancock's 
own relatives. AVe forced the payment of that debt, and now we are 
hero, in 1880, as Democrats and Republicans of Piiiladelphia, to pay our 
debt to our ])rescrvers. Like that of James Buciianau to the people of 
Kansas, our debt was not the result of chance. It was the outgrowth of 
a spontaneous gratitude, freely volunteered, eagerly and passionately 
pressed upon others. True, Philadelphia was in great danger, and fear 
sometimes inspires generosity; and Buch.^iian wanted votes, and to get 
them was ready to swear to anything. The great difiference between the 
two was, that Buchanan tried to escape payment of his obligation, and 
liad to be held to it ; while every year that has jiassed since Hancock's 
great work at Gettysburg on the 2d of July, 18G3, has added to the 
value of his services, and has so added to the readiness of the people of 
Philadelphia to recognize them. 

The veterans of his old army corps, and of the Pennsylvania Reserves, 
Democrats and Re})ublicans, officers and men, regard Hancock with the 
:^,dmiration that the Old Guard felt for Murat. They were alike in per- 
sonal beauty and splendid horsemanship, only Hancock was more culti- 
vated, polite, and scholarly. How the greater chiefs regarded him, let the 
General of all the armies of the Republic answer. Last Thursday, Junf 
24th, 1880, General Sherman said to one of the newspaper reporters of 
Washington : "7/" yon will sit down and write the best thing that can hi 
put in language about General Hancock as an officer and a gentleman J 
tvill sign it icithonLhesitadon." 

General Hancock was one of the favorites of Abraham Lincoln. 
Even the saturnine and exacting Stanton was his friend. To me Han- 
cock was more than attractive. I liad known his blood, his brothers, hi- 
associates, his comrades-in-arms, and whenever I had a party at my 
rooms on Ca])itol Hill, he Mas there if he was in Washington ; he and 
such men as Sickles, Rawlings, George H, Thomas, Senator Chase, Mr. 
Seward, Judge Holt, Sumner, Ben Wade, General Butler, General 
Meade, General Reynolds, and the whole galaxy of patriots. We did 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 61 

not think of politics in tliose days. "We were, to use the blazing watch- 
word of Douglas in 1861, " we were all patriots ; " and if Hancock was 
liked a little better than others, it was because, while he fought like a 
lion for the old flag, he never denied that he was a Democrat. I believe 
he and Grant have had a difference in military matters; but a little 
incident of rather recent occurrence will show how Hancock feels in 
regard to his old commander. We were acting as pall-bearers at the 
funeral of poor Scott Stuart, who died in London in the winter of 1878, 
and was buried in Philadelphia a few weeks after. As we were riding 
to the grave one of the com})any broke out in very angry deimnciation of 
General Grant, and, according to a habit never to allow an absent friend 
to be assailed in my presence, I warmly and promptly defended the ex- 
President. I cannot give General Hancock's words, but he was cour- 
teous and dignified in seconding my opinions, and in expressing his 
regret that the scene had taken place in his presence. I was also in 
Washington during Mrs. Surratt's trial and execution as a participant in 
the murder of Abraham Lincoln, and can bear personal testimony to the 
manly bearing of General Hancock, who was the military officer in com- 
mand of the National Capital in 1865. The attempt to arouse Catholic 
hostility to him because he carried out the orders of the Government — 
President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of War Stanton — is one of the 
worst exhibitions of party defamation, and disgraces all who are engaged 
in it. He did not hesitate to express his repugnance at the fearful duty 
forced upon him. Nobody in Washington had any doubt about his sen- 
timents fifteen years ago. Hence, when Judge Clampitt, now of Chicago, 
Mrs. Surratt's leading counsel in 1865, comes forth, as he does in Don 
Piatt's Washington Capital, and states as follows, he does what is equally 
well known to myself: 

" Hancock," continued Judge Clampitt, " had no more to do with these 
details or matters than you had. When Judge Wylie, with a Roman 
majesty of character, issued, almost at the peril of his life, the writ of 
habeas corpus in the case of JMrs. Surratt, President Johnson and Secre- 
tary Stanton decided to suspend the writ, and the execution followed. 

" We had hopes to the last of a reprieve and a pardon for Mrs. 
Surratt, and I waited at the arsenal, hoping against hope. General 
Hancock rode down, and approaching him I asked, 'Are there any 
hopes?' He shook his head slowly and mournfully, and, with a sort of 
gasping catch in his speech, said : * I am afraid not. No; there is not.' 

" He then walked off a bit — he had dismounted — and gave some orders 
to his orderlies, and walked about for a moment or two. Returning, he 
said to me : 

" * I have been in many a battle, and have seen death and mixed with 
it in disaster and in victory. I've been in a living hell of fire, and shell 
and grape-shot — and, by God ! I'd sooner be there ten thousand times 



62 LIFE OF GENKUAL HANCOCK. 

over than to give the order tliis day for the execution of that poor woman. 
But I am a soldier, sworn to obey, and obey I must.' 

"This is the true and genuine history of all that Hancock had in 
common with the affair. He was commanding, and, as commander and 
conservator of the national capital, was compellantly obedient to the 
orders of the court which sentenced the conspirators and the so-called 
conspirator to death. He had no voice in the matter, and could have no 
action save as the agent to see that the letter of the law was carried out 
in an order of alphabetic certainty." 

Calumny of any kind on General Hancock is a bad crutch to help the 
ambition of weak men. It is the last resort of imbecile partisanship, and 
A ill have no more effect than if it were employed to scandalize the dead 
President Johnson or the dead Secretary Stanton. It is like the attempt 
to say that his nomination is his surrender to the South he conquered, 
which would be like saying that when a great soldier receives the highest 
honors from those he had taken prisoners in battle he has become their 
prisoner in turn. Considering that we Republicans have been trying to 
get the South to support our candidates for the last fifteen years this 
logic is very lame indeed. 

General Hancock is the favorite son of Pennsylvania, and comes before 
the people of his native State with an exceptional record. He is the 
candidate of a party with a whole people at his back. His fifty-seven 
yonrs are clouded by no political animosity or defeat. No man has 
feathered more friends around his example. At his home in Mont- 
gomery county faction and even Republican criticism ground arms before 
the even tenor of his youthful record, and the stainless pages of his later 
years; and another soldier of great fame, a Republican, native of the 
same shire, adds : " We must concede Hancock Montgomery county by 
a great majority at once." At the last election of the Loyal Legion, in 
Philadelphia, he was chosen its President by acclamation, and, as I 
M'rite, letters pour in upon me from all points of the compass in this 
jiroud commonwealth. He is the unconscious ideal of a host of ardent 
expectations. It is a just yet dangerous concession that no one questions 
and all applaud his courage; dangerous, because such justice conquers 
thousands who hold courage a godlike virtue. It is an eloquent fact, 
that all men should speak of Hancock's moderation, for moderation con- 
vinces more than courage. But here is a favorite son, who has done 
more things than either Buchanan or McClellan. The first was a ripe 
statesman, the second a consummate soldier; and conceding to each all 
that is claimed by his friends, neither was so fortunate as Hancock. 
Read his own narrative of the battle of Gettysburg, which I copy from 
the report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, pp. 403-408, 
taken from his examination at Washington, March 22d, 1864. Plain, 
unaffected, and, above all, honest and impersonal, it reads like a great 



LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 63 

epic in which the exj)loits of the Greek heroes were described by Homer 
in the Iliad or the Odyssey, or the jEneid of the Latin of Virgil. To 
those who have passed through the horrors of those three days' carnage, 
or who suffered the tortures of suspense during those fearful conflicts, 
this unadorned and modest recital of General Hancock's reads like a 
mystic dream. The cannonade of that serried column, the horrid slaugh- 
ter of the combatants, and the frenzy of the hand-to-hand conflict, enlisted 
a thousand pens as they wrung millions of hearts ; but no part of the 
drama is more startling than the serene composure of Hancock as he was 
borne bleeding from the field, coolly dictating his dispatch to Meade, 
directing the future operations of the still doubtful day. We read of the 
dying knight profieriug water to the wounded soldier at his side, or of 
the bleeding commander moving his ship full upon the broadside of his 
adversary; but a stricken general who did not know if he had been 
wounded to death, directing the operations of a still fighting army, reads 
like the exploits of the gods of mythology, and defies the sober prose of 
human language. How wonderfully similar the contrast between such 
serene equanimity and the frantic agony of the hundreds of thousands in 
Philadelphia during those days of battle, impatient to hear, yet fearful 
that the next news would be the doom of their city, the sacrifice of their 
loved ones, and the certain sack of their homes ! 

It is well to freshen such a memory. To leave it to die would be likr^ 
striking Calvary from the Scriptures. It is well that we should be 
taught how much our liberty cost, not alone to win, but to save. How 
blasphemous to profane such memories with the shallow bigotry of the 
Pharisees, or the wicked hatred of the partisan. Gratitude, next to God, 
is the highest type of divine justification. It ennobles men, but it glorifies 
nations. In this case it also secures and seals the reconciliation of the 
sections. Philadelphia was saved from the invader by Hancock and his 
comrades in arms, and it is right that the altar of eternal honor to the 
surviving leader of the victorious host should be set up in her midst. 
Such an altar in such a temple becomes at the same time the symbol of 
popular gratitude, and of the eternal peace and forgiveness of a restored 
people. 

I am only one of the army of Republicans who will vote for General 
Hancock for these reasons: Only one of many of the oldest Republicans 
in this city, who call upon me to say that they would be ashamed of 
themselves if, after all their words of praise and thanksgiving for the 
salvation of Philadelphia from fire and rebel contributions in 1863, they, 
should now vote against the man who did the most of the work. Gen- 
eral Garfield is a good man, but we owe him nothing compared to the 
debt to Hancock. When told that to vote for Hancock is to vote for a 
Democrat, I reply that the partition between the tw^o parties is very thin. 
The only point on which we may be said to differ is protection, and that 



04 LIFE OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 

cannot be a very strong one when Hancock comes from the great tariff' 
county of Montgomery, Pennsylvania, and all his friends are open advo- 
cates of protection, while Garfield was elected a member of the Cobden 
Club in London, the great free trade headquarters in England, because 
of his rather bold sympathies with the Western enemies of Pennsylvania 
interests. If the iron men of Pennsylvania want to know any more 
about Garfield's free trade ideas, they ought to read over Judge Kelley's 
exposure of the Republican candidate for President a few years ago. The 
Republican and Democratic parties in this country are too close to each 
other on all questions, and too much interested in national peace aud pros- 
])ority, to make the election of Hancock or Garfield a matter of the 
gravest consequence in point of fact. Only for myself and for many 
others I prefer Hancock, because of his great work at Gettysburg, and 
because, if he is successful, there will be an end of that rule in Pennsyfi- 
vania which has subordinated all our Republican ideas aud duties to tbe 
interests of a few tyrannical politicians. 



m KROC 



L£ N '10 



